[EM] Approval Voting in Action?

[Alex Small]

I understand that in certain parts of Eastern Europe they have "disapproval
voting," where you cross off candidates instead of approving them.
Although the psychology may be different, technically it's equivalent to
approval voting, except that they also allow "None of the Above" to win.
(Not a bad idea since a dead man won the Missouri Senate race in 2000 in a
race against a rather, um, ideological conservative, to put it nicely.)

Does anybody know what the multi-party situation is in those countries?
How does use of PR affect the situation?  My guess is that Approval will
arrive here before PR.

ALso, as for the comment of Anthony Simmons that AV is more natural than
IRV to people accustomed to plurality, we also have a very strong notion of
Majority Rule.  Normally our elections produce majorities, because
plurality discourages third parties.  When nobody wins a majority people
get upset (and probably rightly so, although AV doesn't guarantee
majorities).  With the guarantee of a majority IRV seemed more natural to
me before I learned more about the subject.  (Of course, a majority is
about the ONLY guarantee you can get from IRV).

Alex Small

--
"Frodo gave his finger for you."