Anthony Duff anthony_duff-at-yahoo.com.au |EMlist| wrote:
My impression is that the rampant strategic voting that occurs in the
US is caused by the use of plurality. I have lived in America, and
discussed politics and voting with Americans, and it was obvious that
the need to betray a favourite to vote for the lesser of two evils is
apparent to most Americans. I suspect that if Americans were given
any rank ballot to vote on, then the practice of strategic voting
would decline significantly, over time.
The question of how fully the American public understands Duverger's
"law" is an interesting one.
On the one hand, something like 95-97% of the vote typically goes to the
two major parties, which indicates that the public has a good basic
understanding of the "lesser of two evils" problem and the corresponding
need for strategy. (Many Nader supporters learned a hard lesson in the
2000 US Presidential election.)
On the other hand, around election time I still seem to hear a lot of
moaning by Libertarians and Greens about being ignored by the media and
being shut out of the debates -- as if the problem would go away if the
media started giving them equal coverage with the major parties. I think
that indicates a fundamental lack of understanding of the real problem
they face.
In the end, I suspect most Americans understand that a vote for a minor
party is a "wasted" vote, but many don't understand that the plurality
system is the reason.
--Russ
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