[Election-Methods] Partisan Politics

[Juho]

On Mar 2, 2008, at 17:45 , Fred Gohlke wrote:

> SEEKING IMPROVEMENT

> We do not need partisanship, which sets one person against
> another; we need independent representatives who will think for
> themselves and reach intelligent decisions on matters of public  
> concern.
>   In other words, to improve our government, we must change the way we
> select our representatives.

This sounds like you would be happy with something like STV. Parties  
do cause problems but also the other extreme where the  
representatives are all totally independent has some problems. I'd  
expect the totally independent representatives to associate  
themselves with some known groupings or ideologies to clarify their  
position. And this is not that far from having a new party structure.

Another approach to expressing how the political system (of USA and  
many other countries too) should change is to say that the party  
behaviour and rules of behaviour should be improved. (Parties need  
not be tyrants and nests of evil but just free groupings of people  
with similar opinions.) Typical problems are having individual  
representatives that have no own power but that need to follow the  
policies set by the party leaders. Another might be too strong  
connections to some interest groups. Third one might be lack of  
contact to the voters and their true needs/interests. And fourth one  
use of cheap propaganda instead of open discussion.

Any system has some tendency to corrupt in time. Political parties  
and the political system are no exceptions. One needs to stay awake  
and not let the system slide into something less good than what it  
was or what people expect it to be or become.

One could also start by seeking the problems from the voters. There  
is a saying that citizens will get as good government as they  
deserve. I mean the voters that are well educated and that are  
offered good information on the state and plans and actions of the  
society throughout the election period may be capable of making wiser  
decisions in the elections than those who are just briefly targets of  
the marketing campaigns before the elections.

> Political systems are always an embodiment of human nature.  Until we
> learn to harness our own nature, we can improve neither our  
> politics nor
> our society.

Yes. One viewpoint to the evolution of our societies is that we are  
on a journey from the laws of jungle towards societies that take the  
human needs better into account. There is no reason to believe that  
the current systems would be perfect. We have taken many steps from  
the pure "laws of jungle" model but certainly also further improving  
steps are possible.

> Such changes occur slowly.  Ought we not start to consider the methods
> by which they can be accomplished?

Yes.

I do believe that many of the shortcomings of politics do have strong  
links and may be traced back to the incumbent political parties and  
the way they operate. But that doesn't necessarily mean that parties  
would be evil as such, or that political systems without parties  
would automatically perform better. Thorough understanding of the  
dynamics of the political system is needed to make its operation  
better (in small or large steps).

Juho





		
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