Rob reported > According to the Warsaw Business Journal, there's a proposal on the > table to move away from proportional representation, and toward single > member districts elected by first-past-the-post. The article cites the > difficulty in reaching consensus under the current system (which isn't > surprising if they are relying on standard majoritarian rule amongst the > elected representatives). > Article is posted here: > http://www.wbj.pl/user/article.asp?ArticleID=174929 > Also posted to Electorama!: > http://electorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid= > 18&newlang=eng
They are not the first post-communist country to propose this change or to make this change and I don't expect they will be the last. However, they may find the change is a jump from the frying pan into the fire. First-past-the-post (FPTP) in single-member districts gives no guarantee of "strong government", which seems to be what they are looking for. Sometimes it gives strong government (single-party majority of seats) when a different party has more votes than the government party. And it is not a recipe for stability. The UK suffered appallingly from the political consequences of electoral instability and the reversals of government and reversals of policy from 1945 to 1979. For the next 20 years we suffered again, but from stability of a very different kind. It should be no surprise that there are difficulties in reaching consensus given the size of the economic and social adjustments Poland is facing. In such circumstances some will always hanker for "the old times", while the coalitions of politicians that constitute the new parties and political groups will be liable to shift as some policies fail and other policies prove extremely unpopular. I didn't understand your comment about majoritarian rule amongst the elected representatives. No matter how you build a consensus on any issue, at the end of the day it will require majority support in the Parliament if it is to become accepted national policy. That will apply no matter whether you have majority government of one party or a coalition, or minority government. Of course, you can improve the stability of the Parliament (and of the government) by avoiding the stupid rule that any successful vote against the government automatically means that the government falls. Governments should be dismissed only on a specific vote of no confidence. James ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
