[EM] A structural fault in society owing to a design flaw in the electoral system

[Michael Allan]

I started writing an essay based in part on our earlier discussions
about the meaning of a vote (or lack).  Here is a rough abstract:

  The individual vote has no effect on the formal outcome of an
  election; whether the vote is cast or not, the outcome will be the
  same regardless.  The voter *as such* is thereby disengaged from
  political power.  I argue that the sum of these individual
  disengagements across the population amounts to a power vacuum,
  which, in Victorian times, led to the effective collapse of the
  electoral system and the rise of a mass party system.  Today, the
  organized parties exercise the political power that was intended for
  the individual voters.  I trace this failure to a technical design
  flaw in the electoral system itself.

  http://zelea.com/project/autonomy/a/fau/fau.xht

The text is only in outline.  Two sections (meaningless vote and
design flaw) will directly concern election methods.  I'll post drafts
when they are ready.  In the meantime, the full argument is elaborated
in this thread copied from the Liberationtech list:

  Freedom in the face of power and a vanishing vote.
  http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-September/thread.html#4295
  http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-September/004316.html

Wednesday's top story in the New York Times is also relevant:

  Nicholas Kulish.  As scorn for vote grows, protests surge around
  globe.  New York Times.  NY edition, September 28, 2011.  p. A1.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/as-scorn-for-vote-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html

Please offer critique if you see any flaws in my argument.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/