[EM] PR favoring racial minorities

[James Gilmour]

Kristofer Munsterhjelm  > Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 3:29 PM
> Jonathan Lundell wrote:
> > Apropos this general subject, David Hill wrote an article on the subject
> > of STV with constraints (Voting matters 
> > <http://www.votingmatters.org.uk/ISSUE9/P1.HTM>).
> > He concludes (and I agree):
> > 
> >> I believe that the approach given above is the best way, within STV,
> >> to implement constraints but that they should not be employed unless 
> >> it cannot be avoided.
> >> The mechanisms of STV are already designed to give voters what they 
> >> want, so far as possible, in proportion to their numbers. It should be 
> >> for the voters to decide what they want, not for anyone else to tell 
> >> them what they ought to want.
> >>
> >> The magazine Punch in 1845 included "Advice to persons about to marry
> >> - Don't". My advice on constraints is similar.
> 
> Dividing a nation into districts before performing STV elections is 
> itself a constraint on the geographical distribution of the candidates. 
> If constraints should be done away with, do you think that nations 
> employing STV should have only one district? If not, why not?

Because we live (or should live) in the real world.  All the evidence from public opinion that I have seen for countries and states
that have a political culture based originally in their British legacy of FPTP in single-member electoral districts, shows that the
electors want guaranteed local representation as well as political proportional representation overall.  It is always a compromise,
but STV-PR with sensibly sized multi-member districts can provide that compromise.  So pragmatically, electoral districts represent
one constraint I would readily accept  -  because I want to see reform implemented.

You also have to remember that the law of diminishing returns applies to representation, as to many other things.  See:	
  http://www.jamesgilmour.org.uk/Droop-Quota-Diminishing-Returns.pdf

I do appreciate that the political culture is very different in countries that have used party list PR voting systems for many
decades.  Their electors seem perfectly happy with the whole country as one district for PR, but they often have some form of
regional allocation of candidates to seats within the national envelope.

James



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