Terminology - Full Representation

[New Democracy]

Dear Rob Richie and list members,

Rob Wrote: "I've had generally positive responses to my trial of the term
Full Representation for Proportional Representation..."

Donald: I would like it to be established that Full Representation and
Proportional Representation are not the same thing. In my book Full
Representation is to mean that all the votes end up on a candidate that
wins. When we gain Full Representation we will automatically also gain
Proportational Rrepresentation but the reverse is not true. Full
Representation is the horse and Proportional Representation is the cart. To
advance the term Proportional Representation first is liken to getting the
cart before the horse.

     Consider the following city election example: This city elects their
council using the At-Large Plurality method. Suppose a group of candidates
get together and construct a slate of candidates - but they design this
slate to match the make-up of the city. This group is making an effort to
give the people Proportional Representation. Futher suppose that this slate
wins the election with fifty-one percent of the vote. It could be argued
that this city now has a council that proportionally represents the
citizens. But this is not what we should want - we should want the city
council elected by ALL the voters - and when we do get that, then we will
also get Proportional Representation.

     Gerrymander is another effort to give Proportation Representation -
but it does not give us Full Representation. We also should not want
Gerrymandering.

     If this distinction is recognized then Full Representation is the best
term. I have been using the term Total Representation but I am starting to
like the term Full.

     To answer RL Suter who wrote: "I don't understand why the term
Proportional Representation is such a problem."

     It is a problem because we should be pushing Full Representation - a
concept in which every vote ends up on one of the winning candidates. But
Proportional Representation is also a problem because it is carrying
baggage. In this country it gets the blame for the flaws of coalition
governments in other countries. And also in this country the people have
the perception that it has something to do with that evil thing known as
Gerrymandering.

Don,

Donald Eric Davison of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald

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