a not unattainable educational qualification, it may be
tripled. Under no circumstances may an individual be entitled to more
than three votes. The plural vote of Belgium differs, therefore, from
that of Great Britain, not only in that it is based upon a variety of
qualifications of which property ownership is but one, but also in
that there is fixed an absolute and reasonably low maximum of votes.
It is of interest further to observe that voting is declared by the
Belgian constitution to be obligatory. Failure to appear at the polls,
without adequate excuse made to the election officer, is a
misdemeanor, punishable by law. The citizen may, if he likes, evade
the law by depositing a blank ballot. But he must deposit a ballot of
some sort.[762]

[Footnote 762: On the earlier aspects of Belgian
electoral reform see J. Van den Heuvel, De la
revision de la constitution (Brussels, 1892); L.
Arnaud, La revision belge, 1890-1893 (Paris and
Brussels, 1894); La reforme electorale en Belgique,
in _Annales de l'Ecole Libre des Sciences
Politiques_, July, 1894; E. Van der Smissen, L'Etat
actuel des partis politiques en Belgique, ibid.,
Sept., 1898. An important work by a leading
socialist and a deputy from Brussels is L.
Bertrand, Histoire de la democratie et du
socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830, 2 vols.
(Brussels and Paris, 1906-1907). Mention may be
made also of E. Vandervelde et J. Destree, Le
socialisme en Belgique (2d ed., Paris, 1903) and
the older work of E. de Laveleye, Le parti clerical
en Belgique (Brussels, 1874). A careful study is J.
Barthelemy, L'organisation du suffrage et
l'experience belge (Paris, 1912). In 1910-1911 the
number of parliamentary electors was 1,697,619, of
whom 993,070 had one vote, 395,866 had two votes,
and 308,683 had three votes.]

III. PARTIES AND ELECTORAL REFORM SINCE 1894--PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

*597. The Adoption of Proportional Representation, 1899.*--The first
election held under the law of 1893, that of October 14, 1894,
demonstrated that by that measure the number of e