The current dispute between the CCA and the Independents, for example, is reminiscent of the old party conflicts, some say.

"There's just too much politicking going on--it's just like the old days [before PR] again," says Sullivan. "I think it's all over with, that's what I think."

And Cunningham says he thinks people in the city are becoming more receptive to a traditional voting system of wards and districts.

In the past year, development has become one of the most sharply debated issues before the council. Several neighborhood groups have claimed that the city's policy of actively promoting construction damages thequality of residential life.

"All those who argue that neighborhoods shouldhave more control over development, for example,are led by that idea," says Cunningham.

Other groups are also critical of PR RepublicanCity Committee chair Vincent L. Dixon says hewould prefer a council organized along the Bostonmodel, with some members representing districtsand some elected at large.

"There's something to saying, `okay, let'sshake up the cards a little again,'" Dixon says.

Dixon, of course, may have ulterior motives.The city's tiny minority of registered Republicanshas not had a representative on the council sinceCornelia B. Wheeler retired in 1969. And a returnto a ward-based system would almost inevitablystrengthen political parties.

Still, Dixon maintains that no matter how wellPR works, any system develops flaws after a time.Revision is always needed, he says.

"People learn behavior after a period of timeand they learn to manipulate it," says Dixon. "Ifthere were no PR I might suggest that we use it."

PR sounds like a complicated system, andit is.

But Bigelow says the system has a logicalbeauty, which accounts for its popularity inacademic circles. Professors of political science,she says, tend to love PR. Voters often say theyhate it.

However complicated the system may sound,experts say PR works--perhaps too well for its owngood. The basic problem with PR, they say, is thatit does exactly what it was supposed to do--electcandidates with minority support.

The most famous test on a municipal scale comesfrom New York City, which implemented the systemon a borough-by-borough basis in 1936.

But the city repealed PR in 1947--shortly afterBenjamin Davis, Jr. Was elected to the CityCouncil on the Communist party ticket. AnotherCommunist and two members of the socialistAmerican Labor Party had previously served on theNew York council.