[EM] You Can't Have it Both Ways

[Greg Nisbet]

Hello Michael,

<previous message>
They ought to be guided soley by their own communications.  So how can
we help?  Specifically:

 1. What reform can free the electors of external manipulation?

 2. Through what plan of action can we implement the reform?

 3. In the act of implementing the reform, what assurance do we have
    that we ourselves are not manipulating the electors?

--
Michael Allan
Toronto, 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.xht
</previous message>

As a brief overview, I was more criticizing the motives of people than
suggesting a particular plan. Any plan that some person touts changing
society in manner X shouldn't really be trusted.

1. Pretty much all of the methods that people advocate here would do the
trick. Various Condorcet Methods, Range Voting, IRNR etc. The actual method
itself isn't that big an issue. As I mentioned in "Making a Bad Thing
Worse", the main problem here is how we decide who is most deserving of
votes or what restrictions to place on them. I'd say that as long as the
voting system is reasonably independent of clones and everyone's vote is
counted equally, the specifc electoral method is of little consequence. What
is of consequence is the myriad laws that accompany it, none of them
improving voters' ability to influence their government. The "Making a Bad
Thing Worse" discussion mentions some of the things that damage this. For
the United States, at least, getting rid of these silly laws would go a long
way toward the deregulation of politics.

2. I'm not entirely sure. I'd really have to think about it. I'd say that
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/ is a pretty good idea.

3. I'd say that the methods here for the large part don't do this. Most of
the arguments here are about which method represents the voters the best,
not which changes society in way X. I'd say as long as it doesn't lead to 2
party domination, is independent of clones, and allows reasonable voter
expressiveness, it won't lead to government manipulation of politics.
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