Editing D'Hondt method (section)

==Threshold==
The D'Hondt method reduces [[political fragmentation]] by allocating more seats to larger parties. This effect is strongest for small [[electoral district]] sizes; for legislatures with many members, elected in a single national list, the effects of using one proportional method rather than another are negligible.

An alternative approach to reduce political fragmentation are [[electoral threshold]]s, where any list which does not achieve that threshold will not have any seats allocated to it, even if it received enough votes to have otherwise been rewarded with a seat. Examples of countries using the D'Hondt method with a threshold are [[Albania]] (3% for single parties, 5% for coalitions of two or more parties, 1% for independent individuals); [[Denmark]] (2%); [[East Timor]], [[Spain]], [[Serbia]], and [[Montenegro]] (3%); [[Israel]] (3.25%); [[Slovenia]] and [[Bulgaria]] (4%); [[Croatia]], [[Fiji]], [[Romania]], [[Russia]] and [[Tanzania]] (5%); [[Turkey]] (7%); [[Poland]] (5%, or 8% for coalitions; but does not apply for ethnic-minority parties),<ref name="Lebeda-H">
{{Citation
 | last = Lebeda
 | first = Tomáš
 | author-link = Tomáš Lebeda
 | title = Hlavní proměnné proporčních volebních systémů
 | journal = Sociologický Ćasopis
 | trans-title = The Main Variables of Systems of Proportional Representation
 | publisher = [[Sociologický časopis]]
 | date = 2001
 | volume = 37
 | issue = 4
 | pages = 442
 | url = http://sreview.soc.cas.cz/uploads/f213451ab2ebbfd43a47e9a357052f59876adc77_140_425LEBEDA.pdf
 | issn = 0038-0288
 }}
</ref> [[Hungary]] (5% for single party, 10% for two-party coalitions, 15% for coalitions of 3 or more parties) and [[Belgium]] (5%, on regional basis). In the [[Netherlands]], a party must win enough votes for one strictly proportional full seat (note that this is not necessary in plain D'Hondt), which with 150 seats in the lower chamber gives an effective threshold of 0.67%. In [[Estonia]], candidates receiving the simple quota in their electoral districts are considered elected, but in the second (district level) and third round of counting (nationwide, modified D'Hondt method) mandates are awarded only to candidate lists receiving more than the threshold of 5% of the votes nationally. The vote threshold simplifies the process of seat allocation and discourages fringe parties (those that are likely to gain very few votes) from competing in the elections. Obviously, the higher the vote threshold, the fewer the parties that will be represented in parliament.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://faculty.georgetown.edu/kingch/Electoral_Systems.htm|title=Electoral Systems|first=Charles|last=King|website=Prof. King’s Teaching and Learning Resources|access-date=2018-05-05}}</ref>

The method can cause a ''natural threshold''.<ref>{{Cite report |author=Venice Commission |date=2008 |title=Comparative report on thresholds and other features of electoral systems which bar parties from access to parliament |url=http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2008)037-e |publisher=Council of Europe |access-date=February 14, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Michael |last2=Mitchell |first2=Paul |date=2005 |title=The Politics of Electoral Systems |chapter-url=http://www.blogary.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The_Politics_of_Electoral_Systems.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010090047/http://www.blogary.ro/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The_Politics_of_Electoral_Systems.pdf |archive-date=2015-10-10 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |chapter=Appendix C: Effective threshold and effective magnitude |isbn=9780199257560}}</ref> It depends on the number of seats that are allocated with the D'Hondt method. In [[Elections in Finland#Parliamentary elections|Finland's parliamentary elections]], there is no official threshold, but the effective threshold is gaining one seat. The country is divided into districts with different numbers of representatives, so there is a natural threshold, different in each district. The largest district, [[Uusimaa]] with 33 representatives, has a natural threshold of 3%, while the smallest district, [[South Savo]] with 6 representatives, has a natural threshold of 14%.<ref>Oikeusministeriö. [http://www.om.fi/uploads/p0yt86h0difo.pdf Suhteellisuuden parantaminen eduskuntavaaleissa.]</ref> This favors large parties in the small districts.
In [[Croatia]], the official threshold is 5% for parties and coalitions. However, since the country is divided into 10 voting districts with 14 elected representatives each, sometimes the threshold can be higher, depending on the number of votes of "fallen lists" (lists that do not receive at least 5%). If many votes are lost in this manner, a list that gets 5% will still get a seat, whereas if there is a small number votes for parties that do not pass the threshold, the actual ("natural") threshold is close to 7.15%.
Some systems allow parties to associate their lists together into a single "cartel" in order to overcome the threshold, while some systems set a separate threshold for such cartels. Smaller parties often form pre-election coalitions to make sure they get past the election threshold creating a [[coalition government]]. In the Netherlands, cartels (''lijstverbindingen'') (until 2017, when they were abolished) could not be used to overcome the threshold, but they do influence the distribution of remainder seats; thus, smaller parties can use them to get a chance which is more like that of the big parties.

In French municipal and regional elections, the D'Hondt method is used to attribute a number of council seats; however, a fixed proportion of them (50% for municipal elections, 25% for regional elections) is automatically given to the list with the greatest number of votes, to ensure that it has a working majority: this is called the "majority bonus" (''prime à la majorité''), and only the remainder of the seats are distributed proportionally (including to the list which has already received the majority bonus). In Italian local elections a similar system is used, where the party or coalition of parties linked to the elected mayor automatically receives 60% of seats; unlike the French model though the remainder of the seats are not distributed again to the largest party.