[EM] Utilitarianism and Perfectionism.

[Juho Laatu]

On 10.2.2012, at 2.17, James Gilmour wrote:

>> Juho Laatu   > Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 8:07 PM
>> 
>> As I earlier wrote, I think the US has many options on how to 
>> go forward with the reform. The presidential election is 
>> maybe the most interesting one.
> 
> Juho
> This may be the most interesting election, but as it is almost certainly the most difficult in which to achieve any practical
> reform, it is perhaps best left to last.

Yes. But the reformists should have a good understanding on what kind of end state they aim at, and what the intermediate steps might look like.

>  The vested interests in maintaining various aspects of the electoral college system are
> such that much more could be achieved by turning the single-winner focus on to other single-winner elections.

The reform could well make progress in a bottom-up way. I.e. start with individual towns and progress to other towns and then higher up if the new approach is good enough to raise interest and popularity. I agree that the presidential election is not an easy place to start a reform.

>  And of course, along
> with that, I would recommend changing the voting systems for all the various "representative assemblies" to make them properly
> representative of those who vote.

Sounds like proportional representation.

>  Once these are all in place, the presidential election will stick out like a sore thumb.  Your
> chance of reform of the voting system for that election will be much greater then.

Right. This soulnds like a potential path for a suuccessful reform.

Juho



> 
> James
> 
> 
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info