[EM] Brazil

[Kevin Venzke]

Alex,

 --- Alex Small <asmall at physics.ucsb.edu> a écrit :
> I wonder to what extent this is related to native political culture rather
> than the actual voting system.  

I am sure there is something to that.  For instance, the Brazilians aren't
very well-informed about candidates.  In a more developed country, more might
be demanded of candidates and parties.  (I read that in southern, more modern
Brazil, party-switching is frowned upon.)

I think I would also note that Brazil's is a presidential system.  If the
lower house were to select the government, I imagine the voters would take more
interest in parties and policies.  (Compare British and American campaigns.  If
the U.S. were parliamentary, Americans would probably be more partisan when
electing legislators.  No disagreement there, I hope?)

> I would like to know how other countries' experiences with open-list
> compare with Brazil's before concluding that open-list is the worst
> possible PR system.

Alright, but I intend to be more specific than that: "Open-list where you
can vote for only one individual candidate."  Maybe I should add "with many 
seats per district" to that, and maybe even "with a presidential system."

I attempted to find another country with Brazil's system, and have (so far)
only found Finland.  I understand that Finland is unicameral and (mainly) 
parliamentary.  That's already a lot of local difference...

If I un-nominate the Brazilian system, then I want to nominate SNTV for worst
system ever used.

Kevin Venzke
stepjak at yahoo.fr


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