On 20 Jul 2001, at 6:09, Adam C. Lipscomb wrote:
> Ah! Nuts and bolts to tinker with. This is better...
>
> > Firstly elections for..say 1/4 of the lower chamber every year.
> > Keeps the politicians on their toes, and means they can't do
> > unpopular things just after a big election and get away with it. It
> > gives continuity and strenght to a government....
>
> We do that with the US House of Representatives and the Senate - the
> House is up for reelection every 2 years, with a good percentage of
> incumbents returning. The Senate serve 6 year terms, with 1/3 of them
> up for reelection every 2 years. Executive leadership is up for
> change every 4 years, with a limit of 10 years total in office.
This ISN'T how the UK system works..and the US still has big
elections for a leader..and some nasty campaign finance rules
IMHO.
> > Secondly, a partial-list system like Germany's allows majority
> > partys to dominate (Unlike, say, Israel), but also allows minority
> > partys a say in Government (Unlike, say, America or the UK).
>
> Can you give some specifics regarding this?
Yes, as I recall..
Some of the parliament is linked to geographical regions, and the
people with the most votes standing in each of those regions is
elected. If a party gets more than 1.5% of the vote (this weeds out
the wacko parties), then they get people from their list. Basically,
the idea with the list is that the percentage of people who voted for
each party should be reprisented in the parliament.
It's a nice system..it keeps the idea of people standing for specific
regions, but eliminates thungs like senior party members being
eliminated because where they happen to have their constituency
votes for another party (you put those at the top of the list, see),
and it also weeds out the wacko parties (anyone say monster
raving loonie party?)
> > And yes, I do believe reprisentative democracy, as practiced today,
> > is over-rated. It gives no long-term stability to policy, although
> > the UK HAD this to some extent with the House of Lords (the current
> > system is a mess, let's see what comes out). The idea of people
> > serving long terms (decade plus) in an upper house definately
> > interests me, and I do NOT believe all those in an upper house
> > should be selected by popular vote.
>
> Just out of curiosity, what's the average term of service of an MP in
> the UK? How many are reelected each term? How would members of your
> upper house be selected?
I'm unsure. I'm unsure.
The third is up in the air right now...the government is basically
trying to decide what to do about that at the moment.
Andy
Dawn Falcon
