User:Owenpatel/sandbox/everypolitician/documentation/non-territorial-consituencies

Constituencies with a non-territorial element

It is common for representatives to legislatures to be elected by a set of people who live in a defined geographic area, called an "electoral district" or "constituency". This would normally be represented by an constituency entity with a instance of (P31) electoral unit (Q192611). The elected representative would be linked to the constituency through the use of a electoral district (P768) qualifier on a position held (P39) statement.

The diagram here shows a typical set of entities and relationships involved in modelling an electoral district or constituency following the every politician data model

Example of a territorial constituency

In some situations the set of people who elect a representative are defined by criteria other than (just) where they live. This document is intended to offer guidance on representing constituencies which have a non-geographic element in terms of who can vote for the representative. Note, this is a separate issue to the method of election (for example via a form of proportional representation or first past the post). This is also different to situations where there a member of a legislature is not representing a constituency (where a electoral district (P768) qualifier on the position held (P39) can be set to no value)

• Create the constituency and member of the legislature as defined by the every politician data model
• Create (or find) an entity to represent the specific electorate which can vote in the election as a instance of (P31) electoral college (Q1141323)
• Add a right to vote (P2964) property to the constituency entity with a target of the entity which is instance of (P31) electoral college (Q1141323)

Example: Aborigine Constituencies in Taiwan at both the National and FLACS (regional) level

Some members of legislatures in Taiwan are elected only by subgroups of the population called Highland Aborigines and Lowland Aborigines. This article on how Taiwanese elections work describes these groups as follows:

The classification of whether an aboriginal person is a Plains aborigine or a Mountain aborigine (sometimes referred to as “Lowland” and “Highland” aborigines) is somewhat arbitrary. It does not take into account ethnic or tribal affiliation, and is instead pegged to where one’s family household registration was located (i.e. in the “plains” or “mountain” administrative regions) prior to 1945, the year the ROC occupied and took control of Taiwan from the Japanese.

This has been modelled as follows:

⟨ Lowland Aborigine Constituency (Q21041600)    ⟩ instance of (P31) ⟨ Legislative Yuan constituency (Q19409201)    ⟩
located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) ⟨ Republic of China (Q865)    ⟩
right to vote (P2964) ⟨ Lowland Aborigine in Taiwan (Q50355511)    ⟩

⟨ Lowland Aborigine in Taiwan (Q50355511)    ⟩ instance of (P31) ⟨ electoral college (Q1141323)    ⟩

Note in this example the geographic bound on the constituency is the whole of Taiwan, as the right to vote in this constituency applies to groups of Highland or Lowland aborigines (membership of these groups is defined in a specific way) across the whole of Taiwan.