[Election-Methods] Partisan Politics + a method proposal

[Juho]

On Jun 6, 2008, at 17:53 , Fred Gohlke wrote:

> re: "I just pointed out that it does not guarantee full  
> proportional representation."
>
> This point seems to center on what one considers proportional.  You  
> appear to believe minorities should have representation in  
> proportion to their size.

I do have some sympathies in that direction (but that is of course a  
separate topic from just pointing out the fact).

> I understand that you believe the mechanism I described will  
> operate to the detriment of minorities while I believe it gives  
> them a greater advantage than they have in a partisan political  
> structure.

I guess that depends on what kind of a political structure we are  
observing.

> In my view, the method replaces emotion with reason.  As a result,  
> minorities with a rational basis for their goals will achieve them  
> more easily.

Yes, the new method has some properties that support this.  It is  
however not guaranteed that feelings, parties and other  
differentiating factors will not find their way in and play some role  
also in that method.

> Partisan politics is based on confrontation and rests, ultimately,  
> on violence. We should avoid it.

Yes, artificial division of people into such boxes indeed encourages  
confrontations.  Party life may be more or less sophisticated, and  
the border lines more or less strict.

> Democracy is a majority rule concept.  Those who would change  
> society and its government must persuade the majority of the people  
> to accept their views.  Anything less than that is oligarchical in  
> structure and offensive to reason.

That is most typical.  I hope also the minorities will be treated  
well and they will have their opinions heard.

> ... to be molded by the thoughtful minds on this site into a viable  
> electoral method.

The process was a bit confusing since I believe there are many  
viewpoints and ideas flying around in this mailing list.  I think the  
process works better if there is either some clearly set target that  
narrows the search space and that everyone can follow, or if some  
single person simply dominates the process and makes the method  
reflect his/her personal visions (while expecting and reacting to  
comments from others).

Juho




		
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