[EM] Student government - what voting system to recommend?

[Juho]

On Apr 24, 2007, at 1:51 , Howard Swerdfeger wrote:
> a) I guess I was thinking of "Non-competitive" as one where the  
> winner is obvious long before the contest is held (boxing: Me vs  
> Mike Tyson). and "competitive" as one where the winner is not known  
> until the last possible moment (Running: Me Vs. You!).

This use of the word correlates with the way I used it (but may also  
differ in many cases).

> b) accepting your definition for the purpose of this thread.

Ok, my use of the term is not a stable definition in the area of  
election methods, so also different terminology may be used.

> 4) The ultimate form of democracy is one that
>  * maximizes voter knowledge of issues
>  * seeks to Involve the voters at every stage of decision making  
> process   (direction, Discussion/deliberation, Vote)

Agreed. These are some very key principles that make a democratic  
system work well.

>  * generates a laws and directions for society that is  
> representative of the beliefs of all well knowledgeable voters.

Yes, assuming that we try to make all voters "knowledgeable" (as in  
the first bullet) and don't deny the less knowledgeable ones the  
right and recommendation to vote as well.

> Many people in the last election who voted Conservative did not  
> really want the conservative in power. They mainly wanted the  
> ruling Liberals out of Power. and the only party with enough  
> support to do that was the Conservatives.
>
> Same goes for the one before that election. Many people "Plugged  
> there nose" and voted Liberal because they were afraid of the  
> "hidden agenda"  from the "Religious Right" in the Conservative Party.

This sounds like the "one dimensional" (binary) spectrum of  
alternatives of a two-party system is not sufficient for the voters  
in this case. Multiple parties and/or ability to provide opinions in  
more than one dimension (traditionally often the left-right axis)  
would probably reduce the "nose plugging effect".

Juho


P.S. One more comment on the older mails. The number of voters has an  
effect in the sense that the higher the number of voters is the more  
probable it is that one voter doesn't feel that he/she can trust all  
the other voters to be his/her friends but will vote against him/her  
(in a competitive way). This may increase the probability that this  
voter decides to vote strategically (since probably others do so  
too). In small groups people may thus trust that all members of it  
know the needs to all others and will take them into account in a  
fair way. In big groups others may be seen as "strangers that one  
needs to defend against".


	
	
		
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