[EM] Proxy - bicameral
Dr.Ernie Prabhakar
drernie at radicalcentrism.org
Tue May 18 07:08:05 PDT 2004
On May 17, 2004, at 11:14 PM, James Green-Armytage wrote:
> "Dr. Ernie Prabhakar" <drernie at radicalcentrism.org> writes:
>> For example, it seems to me that Robert's Rules explicitly require or
>> assume a one-person/one-vote Plurality type of decision-making, and it
>> thus (naively) inconsistent with rank-order voting. Is that a fair
>> assessment? Further, that sort of winner-take-all result seems to
>> lead
>> to a sort of Duverger's effect on committees.
>
> I suggest that any legislative body is free to take a non-binding
> ranked
> vote on multiple options, tally it using pairwise comparisons, and
> then do
> a traditional up-down vote on the Condorcet winner if one exists. I
> can't
> imagine there being any serious legal barriers to such a practice.
You're right, though that feels a bit cumbersome. More importantly, I
think there are non-trivial procedural barriers. From what I
remember, everything in Robert's Rules is based on a majority decision.
That very need to form a majority is what can lead to unhealthy
coalitions. Brian may be willing to take that risk, but I think we
need to address it to make this a serious proposal - otherwise those
opposed will have a legitimate issue to hold against us.
I think Brian's example of slashdot is an interesting analogy, but
again I don't know if it hits the heart of the issue. Slashdot is
about ranking *topics* - semi-static articles. I'm talking about
changing the rules of human discussion, which is largely about
personalities and relationships.
I'm sure there's a way, but as I implied before, I think solving this
problem requires as much consideration and thought as the more formal
aspects of electoral reform, and that those of us interested in true
political reform (vs. mere mathematical analysis) need to face up to
that.
-- Ernie P.
-----------
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. <DrErnie at RadicalCentrism.org>
RadicalCentrism.org is an anti-partisan think tank near Sacramento,
California, dedicated to developing and promoting the ideals of
Reality, Character, Community and Humility as expressed in our Radical
Centrist Manifesto: Ground Rules of Civil Society
<http://RadicalCentrism.org/manifesto.html>
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