The Baha'i Studies Listserv This true only if there is no minimum percentage threshold a party must attain to get representation. Germany, Sweden, Norway, for example, have a 4 or 5% threshold.
The biggest argument against proportional representation is the "wag the dog" scenario, in which parties holding a small percentage of the vote can extract major concessions from other parties to form a ruling coalition. In efferct this gives very small parties power far beyond their actual support in the population. This, too, is highly undemocratic - and wastes the votes of the majority. There is no perfect voting method and it's a question of selecting "the cleanest dirty shirt." Best wishes, Ian ----- Original Message ----- From: Gilberto Simpson To: Baha'i Studies Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:24 PM Subject: Re: Religious rejection of politics The Baha'i Studies ListservMy sense is that Parliamentary systems with proportional representation encourage sincere voting. Under such a system, if the Green Party is closest to your beliefs, and even if they only get 5% of the vote they'll at least get 5% of the seats in Parliament and would be a voice in the government and could form coalitions with other parties. There wouldn't be the whole "wasted vote" issue. On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 4:20 PM, Susan Maneck <[email protected]> wrote: The Baha'i Studies Listserv > LL scores people have said they tend Democrat even though they're closer to > Green Party or Jill Stein > Socialist Party USA or Stewart Alexander That's part of the problem with the party system. You vote for what you think you can get, not for what you think is right. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-676149-68452.e157d5dc5efabb63696f251595c88...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-676168-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
