The Baha'i Studies Listserv 4 percent sounds like a fair and reasonable threshold. I don't see how your wag the dog scenario is a big problem. If there is a party that can get an outright majority then they have a mandate and don't need to make major concessions to smaller parties. If the party with a plurality didn't get a majority, then they don't have a mandate and they actually should make concessions to the other parties. How is that undemocratic?
I would suggest the wag the dog problem is actually worse in the two-party system. Republican (and Democratic) candidates have to satisfy several different constituencies and each of them gets a huge amount of power. I suspect that under proportional representation, new parties could afford to form and would have more rational amounts of power. The Republicans might split up into a Christian conservative party, an anti-immigrant party a pro-business party, or Ron Paul style libertarians. The Tea Party could be an actual party. The Democrats might became a more unashamedly pro-labor/working class party, The Green Party or an "Occupy" party would be viable. On either side of the spectrum, the fringes could be marginalized and a coalition between more reasonable voices could be formed. On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 12:56 PM, Ian Kluge <[email protected]> wrote: > ** > > 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 <[email protected]> > *To:* Baha'i Studies <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:24 PM > *Subject:* Re: Religious rejection of politics > > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > > My 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-676220-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@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]
