[EM] [Election-Methods] [english 94%] PR favoring racialminorities

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Aug 18, 2008, at 2:00 AM, James Gilmour wrote:

> I have to say I just do not understand the obsession with "lists".   
> I can understand why countries that have used party list PR for
> many decades are (mostly) content not to change, but those countries  
> have at least a century of a very different political culture
> from that of the UK and those countries around the world which have  
> suffered the appalling British legacy of single-member electoral
> districts and first-past-the-post plurality voting.

An assumption, I think, that voters won't have the patience and  
attention span to evaluate a long list of candidates, and need the  
crutch of party guidance to cast their votes.

I also think that fear is largely unfounded, at least in countries  
with high literacy rates and good communications. Certainly here in  
election-happy California the majority of our contests (though not the  
highest-profile ones) are at least nominally nonpartisan, so that no  
party identification appears on the (FPTP) ballot.

It's also easier to explain party lists than STV. Well, at least the  
simpler variations; the more complicated MMD/top-up schemes are pretty  
arcane.