Approval- Cumulative Votes p.r. methods

[LAYTON Craig]

Demorep wrote:

>In the U.K. (with NO written constitution) the Middle Ages notion (aka 
>Westminster) lingers on that ALL power is in the Parliament and Crown 
>(king/queen monarch).

When I referred to my Westminster bias, I was kind of talking about a number
of traditions that people like me take as given in a political system, but
might not be evident at all in the US.  Particularly, I understand that
members of parliament don't always vote along party lines?  Could someone
confirm this because I always suspected it to be the case, but I wasn't
sure.  In Australia, if you vote against your party, there's a very real
chance of expulsion.  This kind of party discipline stems from the fact that
it is considered essential for a government to have an absolute majority in
the lower house of parliament.  This is also partly due to the cabinet
(executive) being in the legislature.  The whole thing about a rational
legislative program is probably lost on you.  Basically, the cabinet drafts
legislation, in consultation with their departments; so, when legislation
goes through, the bureaucracy has already ensured that it is legislation
they can implement & the government has ensured that it is coherent with
their entire legislative program.  You don't get the situation where
ministers (Secretaries) have to implement legislation that they haven't had
any imput in drafting, there is no conflicting legislation etc. as you're
living with this every day, you probably don't see it to be a problem.  But
it is.

Your proposing a huge waste of resources and energy.  Say a social democrat
government gets in and they're concerned with the level of children in
poverty in the country.  There isn't much data on this so they commission
some studies, look at various proposals, and then they're voted out and a
conservative government comes in, dumps millions of dollars of research and
half-drafted legislation in the bin, and starts researching making bigger
guns for the army.  Another year, and a different party gets in with another
agenda.  They cut defense spending and dump the big guns idea.

and it goes on......