[EM] Conceiving a Democratic Electoral Process

Fred Gohlke fredgohlke at verizon.net
Sun Jul 15 15:26:41 PDT 2012


Good Afternoon, Don

re: "[assuming a Condorcet voting system]. It is true that more
      extreme parties would increase in numbers and first round
      votes.  Why because they can always have a second choice,
      the L or C candidates, or the M the moderate/non-partisan
      as their third choice which would win most of the elections.

      The non-major parties would increase in numbers (stronger
      in numbers yes, but even less likely to be elected) and at
      the expense of the two major parties but still the moderate
      (non-partisan) would have a greater chance of winning.

Oh, Oh!  You've broached a subject beyond my competence.  It's true I've 
followed this site for quite a few years, but I've never made any 
attempt to follow the intricacies of the various party-based electoral 
methods discussed, because (in my opinion) they all give us more of the 
poison that's killing us.


re: "Generally when you register you must decide to be partisan
      or non-partisan (although in some states you don't have to
      choose). Most people (standard definition) would use this
      definition of non-partisan."

Thank you.  That's a good explanation of the standard definition.  From 
my perspective, the standard definition only acknowledges the existence 
of the portion of the electorate that votes, which, over the six most 
recent elections, has averaged 43.3% of the voting age population. 
Presumably, by this definition, the other 56.7% have no right to 
influence our government.  I'd like to conceive an electoral method that 
gives every member of the voting age population the ability to influence 
the electoral process to the full extent of their desire and ability.


re: "(Wikipedia) "Democracy is a political system based upon the
      concept of 'rule by the people who have the right to hold
      some form of political power'."

That's an interesting definition, but it fails to identify which people 
"have the right to hold some form of political power".  Personally, I 
prefer Lincoln's definition, "Government of the people, by the people, 
for the people", although I admit to assuming he meant 'all the people', 
not just the subsets represented by parties.


re: "... I agree with you that it would be a much better
      democracy if more people voted."

I will, for now, avoid commenting on the term 'vote' because that's a 
topic worthy of in-depth examination.  However, would you agree that 
more people would participate in the political process if their 
participation were meaningful?

Fred



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