The Boundary Conditions of Degressive Proportionality

Abstract

One of the basic socio-economic problems is the problem of distribution of benefits and dues. The historically shaped principles of justice direct the solution to the problem of the Aristotelian rule of proportionality. But applying this rule not always gives the expected, satisfactory solutions. This occurs, for instance, regarding the allocation of seats among the member states in the European Parliament. For this reason, the principle of degressive proportionality was legitimized. Although the definition appears in the context of the European Parliament, the application of the rule distribution may be much wider due to certain universal priorities it embodies. The principle of degressive proportionality, however, has a significant drawback, namely, it does not clearly provide a exact division. This lack of clarity results in the fact that within the rule there may appear many different proposals. The article is an attempt to evaluate some of the proposals by the criterion of drawing nearer the most, under certain assumptions, degressively proportional allocation to the proportional one and proposing rules for determining the boundary conditions for such allocation.