[EM] 120 Seats

[Doreen Dotan]

Dave Ketchum <davek at clarityconnect.com> wrote:
   
  Hello, Dave:
   
  It's nice to meet the contributors one by one.
    On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:27:45 -0700 Brian Olson wrote:

> As far as I know, the various factorial properties of the size of a 
> legislative body don't have much affect on the electoral or 
> functional properties of such a group.
> 
> The size of a Single Transferrable Vote - Proportional Representation 
> legislature affects the degree to which people go unrepresented by 
> any of their ballot choices. I think the formula is that about 1/(N 
> +1) fraction of the population go unrepresented for N seats elected.


I suspect the validity of that formula - that it only works if all the 

other details work perfectly - for example that all the voters know 

both what they desire and what the candidates offer.
   
  The formula seems right on.  Like all formulae, it is imperfect when applied to the real world.


  > I heard that a study of the social habits and brain structure of 
> primates indicates that the natural size of a human tribe is around 
> 150 based on the size of the part of our brain that handles social 
> interaction and it's ability to keep our acquaintances managed.


This one makes MUCH sense - especially when there is enough work to do for 
efficiency to matter.
   
  Sounds just about right. Having lived on kibbutz this seems just about right.  When kibbutzim grow past this size alienation sets in.  I lived on a kibbutz of some 350 members for over 5 years.  350 members means a kibbutz of about twice that number of people present at any given time.There were some members whose faces and names I could barely put together for various reasons. It may have happened that during that period I did not so much as have an interchange with a small number of the members. As for the people who came and went: girlfriends and boyfriends of kibbutz children, volunteers, elderly parents of members who resided on the kibbutz for awhile before passing away - I probably never knew who they were at all.

Nice to "meet" you.
   
  Doreen






http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/ImperativeOfMoralMaths.html
 

 

















		
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