[EM] Email standards:

[Dave Ketchum]

Doreen - please get help to attend to telling us in the email:
      Who you are replying to, such as James G.
      When they wrote.
      Which are their words, and which are yours.

Without these, it gets too confusing for anything except a 2-person 
conversation.

Dave Ketchum.

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 00:32:26 -0000 James Gilmour wrote:

>>James (sorry, I'm not sure which one) wrote:
>>
> [OK, but the actual Sender should appear in the "From..." box in your message list.]
> 
> I (James GILMOUR) has written:
> 
>>Even if it were possible to "do the whole Knesset in one 
>>district", I would most strongly advise
>>
>>>against it.  The underlying problems with politics in Israel are 
>>>
>>exacerbated by the large number of
>>
>>>very small parties that gain seats in the Knesset.  A district 
>>>
>>magnitude of 120 (all the members)
>>
>>>would make this even worse than at present, when it is constrained 
>>>
>>(to a small extent) by the 1.5%
>>
>>>threshold.  Districts based on some "natural" communities 
>>>
>>within the 
>>national boundary would deal
>>
>>>with that without the need for an artificial threshold.  There is 
>>>
>>more to electing an effective
>>
>>>parliament than simply securing party PR.
>>>
> 
> Doreen asked:
> 
>>Please define "district magnitude" and "district" as used in 
>>the passage above.  Sorry for the elementary questions.
>>
> 
> No problem  -  some of the jargon is confusing!  Some of it is incomprehensible!!
> 
> "District Magnitude" refers to the number of elected members elected from one "constituency" or
> "district".  "District" is the term most commonly found in the academic literature because it is the
> term used in the USA.  In the UK we use "constituencies" for parliaments and assemblies and "wards"
> for local government councils.  The term district magnitude is used mostly in relation to PR
> (proportional representation) voting systems.
> 
> Israel presently uses a closed list Party List PR system to elect the Knesset.   The current
> District Magnitude is 120 because all 120 members are elected in one national "district" or
> "constituency".  If you divided the country into four districts for electoral purposes, each
> district returning an equal number of members, you would then have a district magnitude of 30.
> 
> For STV-PR it is usual (but NOT essential) to have smaller districts, based around natural
> communities.  Thus the members of Dáil Éireann (TDs) are elected from districts returning 3, 4 or 5
> members.  When we used STV-PR to elect the 38 Scottish Education Authorities in the 1920s, the
> district magnitudes ranged from 3 to 10, with several different magnitudes within the same
> Authority.
> 
> District magnitude automatically places a limit on the degree of PR that can be obtained.  In return
> you get a degree of "localness" associated with the elected members.  Most (but not all)
> commentators, politicians and electors accept that there should be a trade-off between
> proportionality and the local link.  Opinions differ about where the balance should be struck.  That
> trade-off is, however, about more than just PR and local representation  -  it affects the whole
> operation of the elected parliament or assembly.  Viewed from this distance, the Knesset has far too
> many small parties, especially at the extremes of political views.
> 
> James GILMOUR

-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
            Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                  If you want peace, work for justice.