[EM] Clean Government Alliance

Richard Fobes ElectionMethods at VoteFair.org
Wed Jan 16 14:31:43 PST 2013


On 1/13/2013 10:53 AM, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
> ...
> Consider a country that's leaning too far left for the population's
> wishes. A right-wing candidate is elected. This right-wing president (or
> PM, through parliament) starts moving to the right. For this, he or she
> gets approval from the people and starts being considered a good
> president or PM. Let's say it's "he" and "president". Then he continues
> moving to the right (because he is right-wing, after all), overshooting
> the optimum. Because he has gained some reputation for being a good
> president, the voters continue to support him until he goes very far to
> the right.

If the country is left-leaning, then the elected leader moving further 
to the right will soon reach a breaking point, in spite of a "good" 
reputation.

Specifically the "left" voters combined with the growing number of 
"moderate right" voters -- who will dislike his "right-wing" shift -- 
will have a majority and will vote him out of office.

So I don't see this as an example of term limits being needed.

Richard Fobes




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