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To: Sherman Logan
The Swedish, Danish, Israeli and I believe the Dutch method of party list voting is not only un-democratic, it is anti-democratic.

A democratic system of election puts people into office who have been voted for by a large number of the general population. A non-democratic system of election simply puts people into office who have been selected by a handful of professional politicians.

Having party list voting is just as bad as having a class of titled nobles, some of whom are called to court to provide guidance to the administrators.

The crime commited by the advocates of party list voting is that they hold out the promise for '(ideational) minorities' to be represented ~ which never really happens since the same parliament is going to be ruled by 'the ruling coalition', so those 'minorities' get no representation at all.

Coalition politics are best played BEFORE the elections where you can actually have a substantial percentage of the electorate participating in who goes where, and why, and what issues will be featured should the candidates put forward by the coalition win.

Democracy, to exist, has to have a wide franchise so that vast numbers of the people can play a direct part at one stage or the other.

Countries trapped by party list voting can make a step towards democratic rule simply by establishing DISTRICTS with boundaries ~ where only one candidate can win.

126 posted on 05/25/2013 5:29:04 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

I don’t necessarily disagree, but a very large percentage of the world’s population does. Since 60+ countries have one or another variant of proportional representation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation


127 posted on 05/25/2013 5:38:41 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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