[EM] Representational government

[Blake Cretney]

"Andy Brown" <sjbrown at toybox.geeky.net>, on the subject of '[EM]
Representational government', is quoted as:
>(Slightly Off-topic)
>
>We here in Canada have just had a federal election.  The way it works
in
>canada is as follows: each "Riding" (geographically bounded area with
a
>certain population) elects an Member of Parliament (equivalent to
member
>of the HoR) The political party with the most MPs in parliament gets
to
>have it's Leader be the Prime Minister.  (No electoral college or any
such
>nonsense ;)

It's actually pretty similar though.  Most Canadians think about the
election as electing a Prime Minister, or a governing party.  In effect
the House of Commons is an indirect way of doing this.  The current
majority government in BC had fewer votes than the opposition, which
looks fairly similar to what is likely to happen in the US.

There are differences.  Canadians often intentionally elect someone to
represent them in opposition to the government.  Others will elect a
government member in the hopes of getting more perks from the government
(a possibility that is openly advertised).  Some will vote against an
unpopular cabinet minister, etc.  None of this occurs with an electoral
college.

>I voted for a person who did not win.  So now my MP, whose job it is
to
>represent my riding, is someone I do not approve of.  This got me
>thinking... wouldn't it be nice if, during a vote in parliament, each
MPs
>vote counted only as much as the number of people who voted for him --
ie,
>the number of people whom he actually represents?
>
>So for example, if there is a vote in parliament on the Widget Tax, One
MP
>votes yea, and that is given a score of 20,000, and anoter MP votes
nay
>and that is given a score of, say 15,000.
>
>Has anyone ever heard of a system where each MP has a different
>weight?  I'd really like to do further research on this topic, look at
>some of the problems such as regional representation, and such.

I think that in India the President is elected by parliament with votes
in proportion to constituency size.  So, different MP's do have
different weights, although not by the method you mention.  Don't quote
me on that, though.

It is possible to argue that a majority vote in parliament should in
some way represent a majority of the people.  In this case, the existing
system can be seen as counting your support behind the member of your
district, even though you didn't vote for him.  The way you propose
would, in effect, not count your support at all.  It's hard to say which
is better.  Neither seems more likely to translate majority opinion into
government action, if that is your goal.  For that you would need some
form of proportional representation.

Your method would have the disadvantage that some areas of the country
would end up with more representation than others, based on how many
major parties exist in the region, and how close the races were.

---
Blake Cretney