Reveling the Majority Winner

[David Catchpole]

> > to do. I would like the Center for Voting and Democracy to advocate even
> > number of seats in a district instead of their current policy of three
> > member districts. I would like them to advocate the Hare Quota instead of
> > the Droop Quota. I would them to advocate MMP.

I think Donald and I can have a private mudsling about these matters. I
haven't had a good argument for ages. I disagree with him on basically all
of the stands he takes above.

-Even numbers of seats (especially two) fail to represent constituencies
and result in hung legislatures.
-The Hare quota is ethically, mathematically and logistically the
absolutely insuperable basis which should exist for any PR method.
The "Hare quota" eventually wasn't even Hare's. He himself realised that
there wasn't much vindification for it.
-"MMP" is too loose a term and does not work adequately in the countries
where it is typified

But then there's always the anti-intellectual argument ("Them dang
learnin' folks is all a bunch o'opussums").

> >      I would not put much stock in the opinions of authors of voting system
> > books. They are forced to publish. They will write anything in order to be
> > published. They do research in order to write their books. Research is the
> > polite word for stealing. Their books are composed of stolen material with
> > little original thinking on the part of each author. If some garbage exists
> > in one book the same garbage is sure to be in all those books.
> >      You read their garbage and put it onto our list - thanks, but no
> > thanks.
> >      It is not your fault - your authors let you down.
> >
> >     Those authors are in the education field. If they were of any help we
> > should have had the best election system one hundred years ago. But we do
> > not have the best system because those education people are useless when it
> > comes to election reform. The Center is wise not to regard the opinions of
> > all those people. The Center does not need those people - nor you. The
> > Center is doing some good. The Center does not need a pack of dogs nipping
> > at their heels.

"I have said it thrice," the Bellman said,
"Now you know what I say is the truth!"

(From Dodgson/Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark," possibly inaccurate)