[EM] electoral methods - US and Europe

[Adam Tarr]

Toplak Jurij wrote:

>Altough it is often thought that D'Hondt is superior to Saint-Lague, as you
>say, all the research shows that D'Hondt systematically and consisently
>favors large parties, while Saint-Lague does not favour either large or
>small ones.

Right - for this reason I tend to prefer Webster/S-L to Jefferson/D'Hondt, 
at least in the case of party list PR.  The problem is that party list PR, 
by its very nature, tends to increase party discipline and thereby restrict 
voter choice.  So I'd prefer some PR method that doesn't rely on party lists.

This leaves STV and PAV.  IN PAV, I prefer Jefferson/D'Hondt, because this 
choice of quota reduces the strategic incentive to leave popular candidates 
off your ballot.  For STV, the choice is Droop vs. Hare as oppose to 
Webster vs. Jefferson.  I haven't thought about it too much, but based on 
what I've seen I think Droop is better.

I think at some point someone argued that there's a parallel between Droop 
and Webster, and between Jefferson and Hare.  I don't quite remember, though.

-Adam