In Australia each vote received by a candidate is worth a $ amount of funding (paid by tax payers). We also have campaign donations. But I wonder how far the tax payer funded model could be taken.
Each vote represents a) the path to election but also b) funding for the next election campaign.
>>RileyJ+(OP)
In Australia, are parties a "first-class" part of the system? In the US, the historical animosity toward "factions" by the Federalists left us with a system where individuals are funded and the parties are independent corporate entities with their own rules but only de facto power.
In the US, a proportional representation system would have to be enabled by constitutional amendment, I think.