[EM] [Election-Methods] [english 94%] PRfavoringracialminorities

[Juho]

On Aug 22, 2008, at 12:12 , Raph Frank wrote:

> On 8/22/08, Juho <juho4880 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>  In Finland where the number of candidates is relatively high some  
>> less
>> obvious candidates may have some trouble getting in to the lists  
>> but on the
>> other hand some well known figures (that have become popular (and  
>> respected)
>> in other areas than politics) tend to get offers from multiple  
>> parties to
>> join their lists (even as an independent candidate on their list,  
>> without
>> becoming formally a party member).
>
> Would they be expected to vote with the party if they do end up  
> getting elected?

Yes, in general members of some group in the parliament are expected  
to vote the same way most of the time. Different parties have  
somewhat different attitude. In some questions the groups explicitly  
give free hands to their members. (I believe the constitution says  
something about the independent decision making of the  
representatives, and I don't like at least sanctions very much.)

> Is the theory that they will pull in more than 1 seat's worth of
> votes, so it is worth
> having them on the list no matter what they do?

I guess any votes are welcome. The elected candidates are likely to  
be part of the team in any case and increase the strength of the  
party. Also candidates that fail to become elected are very  
beneficial (their votes will be inherited by others).

> Under PR-STV, the whole vote management thing means that parties  
> cannot
> just let their candidates run completely independent campaigns and  
> also that
> the number of candidates run must be controlled based on tactical
> considerations.

In open lists all candidates are expected to campaign as much as they  
can and to collect as many votes as they can. It is also beneficial  
to nominate as many candidates as possible (even few additional votes  
are better than none).

Juho


> In my view, it is one of the weaknesses of PR-STV.  It means that a  
> party
> cannot just run lots of candidates and let the voters decided without
> weakening its position.  Likewise, voters cannot just rank the  
> candidates
> of the party any way they like (or at least they are encouraged to  
> rank
> a specific candidate first choice)
>
> I like the rule where they use the ballots from the general  
> election to decide
> how to fill casual vacancies.  This creates an incentive for the  
> parties to
> run spare candidates so that casual vacancies will be filled by the  
> same party.


	
	
		
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