[EM] Best method in use?

[Olli Salmi]

At 17:14 +0200 16.12.2002, Narins, Josh wrote:
>Finnish people tend to brag about their system
>
>I think they have sophisticated voting for both their elections and their
>assmebly procedure (rules of debate)

I like the simplicity rather than sophistication, or more accurately the
nice balance between simplicity and voter influence.

We use an open list PR in which you can only vote for a candidate. We write
the number of one candidate on a blank ballot paper. The votes for a
candidate are counted for the party when seats are allocated to parties and
for the candidate when the seats within a party are allocated.

In most open list systems the vote for the candidate is optional. The party
votes go to the top candidates of the party and it's uncommon for the
voters to change the order recommended by the party. Talking about Belgium,
Olof Pettersson says: "in the period 1919-1985 only 0.6 percent of the
members of the House of Representatives were elected against the list
order." (in Swedish: http://www.const.sns.se/olofp/stvt94.htm). Under the
Finnish system the voters decide.

Another system where the voters have a lot of influence is the Swiss one
with panachage. The voters have as many votes as there are seats to be
filled and they can strike out candidates and write in candidates from
other parties. However, the ballots cannot be stacked and counted like the
Finnish ballots so the counting of the ballots is more complicated.

In English speaking countries only STV is regarded as a real PR system, but
the districts that STV allows are too small to my liking and the counting
of the result is again complicated.

I don't know if our assembly procedure is particularly sophisticated. When
voting on motions and amendments we use a system that finds the Condorcet
winner if there is one, while the system used in most European countries
doesn't necessarily find it. Closed list PR is used in electing committees.

I don't particularly like single-winner elections. We elect the president
with the French system, but I think the election should be done by
Parliament and the power of the president should be very limited. In fact I
like the Swiss rotating presidency and in general I find Swiss systems
interesting.

In the US proportional elections may be hard to introduce because there are
so many offices filled with popular election. The Illinois Student
Government has open list PR, perhaps the only place in North America that
has it. I haven't found enough detailed information about it, though. I
don't think their constitution and bye-laws say much about it.

Olli Salmi


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