[Election-Methods] Partisan Politics

[Juho]

On Apr 29, 2008, at 1:24 , Fred Gohlke wrote:

> re: "In US all the elected political decision makers have a mandate  
> that
> the citizens have given them. If those politicians are not good, we  
> can
> put some part of the blame also on the citizens."
>
> This is probably the crux of the difference in our views.  There  
> can be
> no mandate when, as I said in an earlier message, "The only choices  
> the
> people have are those foisted on them by those who control the  
> political
> parties that have a stranglehold on our nation's political processes."

Yes, seems so. Your image of the situation seems to be that the  
parties are already out of any proper control while I'm more inclined  
to see the parties still as units that still get their strength and  
mandate to rule from the citizens themselves (and from their lack of  
interest to make the parties better and control them better).

> As my friend and I discussed our views, one of the things that came to
> the fore was a version of "... that would probably make the ties  
> between
> the representatives and their voters tighter." I now think that  
> idea is
> a major breakthrough.  I plan to modify the 'outline' by changing the
> label from Active Democracy to Dynamic Democracy and including a brief
> description of how "tighter ties between representatives and their
> voters" will occur.  When one ponders complex relationships for a long
> time and then finds a fresh perspective, it can be quite exciting.

Since you don't value the current parties that much putting more  
weight on the local representation makes sense. Multi-winner voting  
methods often try to find a balance between political and regional  
proportionality. Strong emphasis on the regional representation and  
close contacts between the representatives and voters may to some  
extent also reduce the need to offer full political proportionality.  
It is also possible to try to satisfy both needs in one system.

Juho




	
	
		
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