Apportionment paradox
Political system apportionment phenomenon / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An apportionment paradox is a situation where an apportionment—a rule for dividing discrete objects according to some proportional relationship—produces results that violate notions of common sense or fairness.
Certain quantities, like milk, can be divided in any proportion whatsoever; others, such as horses, cannot—only whole numbers will do. In the latter case, there is an inherent tension between the desire to obey the rule of proportion as closely as possible and the constraint restricting the size of each portion to discrete values.
Several paradoxes related to apportionment, also called fair division, have been identified. In some cases, simple post facto adjustments, if allowed, to an apportionment methodology can resolve observed paradoxes. However, as shown by examples relating to the United States House of Representatives, and subsequently proven by the Balinski–Young theorem, mathematics alone cannot always provide a single, fair resolution to the apportionment of remaining fractions into discrete equal whole-number parts, while complying fully with all the competing fairness elements.[1]: 227–235