<div dir="auto">Well considered ... and well written from a comprehensive logico-neuro-psycho-historical perspective.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Few are the modern writers equipped both scientifically and historically for such felicitous, concise exposition of this topic of such general importance.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Sep 14, 2022, 10:12 AM Richard Lung <<a href="mailto:voting@ukscientists.com">voting@ukscientists.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Elections in microcosm and macrocosm.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Alfred Tennyson anticipated the so-called United
Nations, in an early poem of “The Parliament of Man.” The phrase
might just as well apply to the rational mind of an individual
human being, who holds elections and exclusions of personal
thoughts. The sub-conscious mind amounts to an “electorate” that
determines those decisions. The introspective psychologies of
Freud and Jung are largely about internalised social conflict
resolution. Indeed, depth psychology attempts to resolve deep
conflicts of instincts and conditionings. Altogether, it is the
work of the United Nations in microcosm. <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The human brain has ceased to be an impenetrable
“black box,” since the advent of brain-scanning neuro-science.
It is possible that election science may have a quantitative
role to play in microcosmic elections of the human mind.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Meanwhile, election science or “electics” has an
urgent role to fill, in advising on conflict resolution, in the
macrocosm of all humanity, or human relations in general. Most
people are evidently not aware of some simple electoral
considerations, for promoting peace: Majority elections are “the
tyranny of the majority” (John Stuart Mill; Lani Guinier) which
fragment societies of their minorities, seeking to become
majorities, in smaller units, where they can preside over their
own “tyranny of the majority.” Thus conflicts multiply.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>What is refered to as a majority is not a democracy,
it is “only half a democracy” (Robert Newland). This type of
democracy is more accurately described as a single majority,
where one representative is supported by half the voters. There
are also multiple majorities. The next simplest majority is a
double majority, where one third of the voters are each
supported by two representatives, giving a proportional
representation of two thirds of the voters. A triple majority
gives a three quarters proportional representation, and so on,
approaching fully democratic representation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>This series of increasing representation is called
the Droop quota. It is not the last word, in the matter.
However, fairly sharing representation does away with the need
for unrepresented minorities to</span><span> </span><span>fracture societies, to become their own dominating
majorities.</span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The fractious effect of “the tyranny of the (single)
majority” extends from legislatures to executives. This tyranny
applies to monarchs or presidents. Even if the president is an
elected monarch, that is essentially the ancient Greek tyrant,
who was an elected ruler, given a free hand. When Quentin Hogg
(Lord Hailsham) called </span><span>Britain</span><span> an “elective dictatorship,” this was a good
definition of a classic Greek tyranny.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Alexander Solzhenitsyn rejected party lists. Parties
only represent a part. The dictator Lenin favored party lists. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Representative democracy requires direct elections.
These are achieved by the Personal Representation form of
proportional representation, as described by Thomas Hare and his
chief supporter John Stuart Mill (The Hare system alias the
Andrae system). Following them, HG Wells advocated “Proportional
Representation with a single transferable vote in large
constituencies.” Or, as the Australians say, the
quota-preferential method.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Richard Lung.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br>
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