[EM] Article: Electoral dysfunction: Why democracy is always unfair (New Scientist)

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Morning, Peter

Thank you, very much, for the link to Ian Stewart's article.  It ought 
to spur a re-examination of the basic assumptions on which the partisan 
electoral methods most frequently advocated on this site are based.  It 
should, at least, inspire doubt, for, as Peter Suber of Earlham College 
wrote about doubt in a 1996 essay on Classical Skepticism:

   "In short, certitude cures doubt, not ignorance.  And with
    doubt conquered, ignorance is invincible."

On February 15th, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana announced his retirement 
from the U. S. Senate, saying, "For some time, I have had a growing 
conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is too 
much partisanship and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology 
and not enough practical problem-solving.  Even at a time of enormous 
challenge, the people's business is not being done."

Over two hundred years experience with party politics informs us that, 
when politics is based on partisanship, the partisans form oligarchical 
power blocks that become an end in themselves and ultimately transcend 
the will of the people.

Partisanship is important to the primary players:  the party leaders, 
financiers, candidates and elected officials.  The significance 
diminishes rapidly as the distance from the center of party power grows. 
   Most of us are on the periphery, remote from the process.  As 
outsiders, we have little motivation to participate.

Party politics is a potent tool for those with a thirst for power but it 
does not foster government 'by the people'.  Instead, it victimizes the 
community by using the most basic and effective strategy of domination 
--- divide and conquer.  The travesty (and the tragedy) of partisan 
politics is that it gives the illusion of democracy while opening the 
conduit by which those who finance the parties control the government.

The key to curing the electoral dysfunction described by Stewart and 
echoed so loudly by Senator Bayh is to devise an electoral method that 
lets every breathing soul influence the political process to the full 
extent of their desire and ability.  One method is described on a site 
recommended to me by Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy 
and Citizenship at Harvard University.  You may find it worthy of 
consideration and adaptation:

http://participedia.net/wiki/Practical_Democracy

Respectfully submitted,

Fred Gohlke