PR vs. Geographic Representation [WAS: RE: [EM] Bill Lewis, never re-district]

[wclark at xoom.org]

James Gilmour wrote:

> Have you ever wondered who was drilling that into your skull and why
> they might want do that?  Some who would keep us from the light don't
> always have the best of motives.

Agreed.  But independently, I still thought that the choice was between
Geographic Representation and a system that gave political parties a
priveleged status (such as party list systems of PR do.)

All of the examples of PR I'd ever seen always dealt with party list
systems, so I thought that's all there was (and consequently didn't follow
up with the additional research that I apparently should have.)

> If you were to adopt any party list system of PR (closed list, open
> list, MMP) you would give the parities more leverage.  But if you
> adopted STV-PR (Choice Voting) you could shift the balance of power
> away from the parties to the voters.

I'll look into STV-PR, then.  Stephane Rouillon has also suggested to me
that I examine SPPA, which I believe may be a variant of (or at least
similar to) STV-PR.

Searching for both of those terms in conjunction has yielded quite
satisfying results from the archive.

[Incidentally, there have been many recent suggestions that people should
use the archives more -- but in many cases they are extraordinarily
difficult to search, because topics are frequently discussed in
misleadingly labeled threads or using terms that pop up so frequently they
provide no assistance in filtering.

Somebody (Mike?) also suggested that a FAQ might be in order for the list.
 Since there are so many differences of opinion on basic issues, that
might not be feasible -- but a version of the archive organized along the
lines of a FAQ might work (a Frequently Raised Threads collection?)  I
might be inclined to help out with such a project, if others would as
well.]

> It is then up to the voters whether they use the power they have been
> given.

That's fine with me.  I'm opposed to political parties, but I'd certainly
prefer a system that left it up to voters as a whole whether or not to
take away the power that parties wield.  After all, maybe I'm wrong and
political parties are actually a *good* thing, and I just don't see it.

-Bill Clark

-- 
Dennis Kucinich for President in 2004
http://kucinich.us/