In a message dated 12/5/02 9:32:09 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << > Democratic politics appear to be (inherently?) oligopolistic. > ~Alypius Skinner
This depends on the size of the voting pool and the method of electing. With proportional representation (each political party gaining representation based on its percentage of the vote) or tiny voting pools, there is no inherent oligopolicity. Fred Foldvary >> I wonder... So far as I know in the 54 years since the creation of the modern state of Israel, only two parties have ever controlled Knesset--Labor and Likud. Proportional representation doesn't allow--or at least hasn't allowed--the fringe parties there to stop being fringe parties. The fringe parties there tend to pull the main parties out from the perceived center the way that party activitists pull the two major American parties (and the way that the Libertarian Party wishes it could in American, but can't because every time it helps elect a Democrat the news media report it as a mandate for more government). I'm not sure that proportional representation precludes duopoly, or indeed makes it any less likely. I think it may just bring more of the voters toward the tail of the distribution out from the major party primaries and into their own parties. David
