[EM] Why proportional elections - Power arguments needed (Czech green party)

[Kristofer Munsterhjelm]

Peter Zbornik wrote:
> Dear all,
>  
> thank you for your help with the election system for the council 
> elections of the green party.
> I will try to move on with technical testing of Schulze's methods and 
> the specification of the elections to the party lists as soon as time 
> allows.
> Thanks all for the support and all methods supplied.
> I never could imagine that I would get such a response.
> When advocating proportional elections in the party, I have found it 
> difficult to explain to other members of the green party why 
> proportional elections to our party organs is a good thing.

As far as I remember, your party, the Czech Green Party, is a minor 
party. Therefore, it might be possible to draw an analogy to the 
proportional methods used by the Czech Republic itself. Without 
proportional representation, the Green Party would have next to no 
chance of ever getting into parliament. However, since your nation does 
use proportional representation, there is some chance.

The same argument could be used within the party. Since the Green Party 
is a minor party, I reason that the party membership honestly believes 
the presence of that party is a good thing. Thus, they would also know 
(to some extent, at least), that minor groups of opinion - like their 
own party in comparison to the major parties - can be good and can add 
valuable ideas to governance. Then could not the same argument be used 
for the party itself? A minor opinion within the party might need time 
to grow, and might in the end turn out to be significant, but using a 
winner-takes-it-all method quashes such minority opinions before they 
get the chance.