Is there any standard/efficient way to elect a cabinet directly ? The only example I know of is the N. Ireland one. Under that system, the d'hondt system is used. The largest party gets first choice and so on based on the d'hondt system. This isn't really directly electing the cabinet though. Also, if all the cabinet seats are not equal in power/value, the larger parties benefit as they end up with first choices and get the more important ones.
So assuming the following: - a cabinet is to be directly elected by a general vote of the population - each seat on the cabinet is for a specific ministry with defined responsibilities - all seats are not necessarily equal in power and this may change over time My initial thought were that STV would be the best method. Each candidate would stand for a specific seat and the candidates would be ranked by the voters. A voter might vote: 1) Candidate A for finance minister 2) Candidate B for finance minister 3) Candidate C for defence minister 4) candidate D for justice minister 5) candidate E for finance minister and so on The problem comes down on how to select a quota. Using the droop quota is not necessarily a good idea as each seat is not equal. For example, there might only be one candidate for one of the seats as it is a pretty unimportant ministery or maybe the incumbent is extrememly popular. Also, the importance of each minister would change from election to election. For example, if a war was brewing, the choice of defense minister would be critical. In times of high crime, the justice minister would be important and so on. At all times, the importance of a ministry would be related to the budget for the ministry. Also, making sure a certain person doesn't get elected, might make people vote for a certain ministry. The process would be that the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated until a candidate is elected. A candidate is only deemed elected when there is nobody else left for the seat the candidate is standing for. The number of votes distributed from the elected candidate would be equal to the number of votes that the candidate defeated the 2nd place candidate by. If lots of people have a certain ministry in their top choices, then it is effectively deemed important, and given a larger quota. I am not sure what the strategy effects of using the system would be. The rule might mean people "burn" their vote by voting for a disputed ministry. Knowledge of polls in the run-up to the election could become important. Another tactic would be for a party to suggest to their supporters to randomly select one of the party's candidates for the cabinet as their first choice. Also, perhaps "simple" ranking is not appropriate in this situation. I might prefer a certain candidate for a specific ministry. However, I would rather my second and third choice were selected rather than just my first choice. Maybe a range like ranking would be better. This would only be used to decide where my vote went rather than in range where it is part of an average. If I vote: A: 1.0 B: 0.6 C: 0.5 D: 0.1 E:-0.5 F:-0.7 Then I am saying my first choice is A, but if I am given a choice, I would rather B and C are elected to just A being elected. This would make the counting even harder though. Also, I would be saying that I would rather B and F both don't get elected rather than B and F both getting elected. Another option would be to allow voters to select the quota for each vote they make. If the candidate is still not elected despite getting more than 20% of the vote, a person might want their vote to go to their 2nd choice. This could prevent a single seat having a massive a quota. For example, if a candidate had 20,000 first choice votes, but 2000 of them had set their max at 15000, then those 2000 would transfer to their 2nd choice, reducing the candidate to 18,000. Fractional transfers would happen if the candidate would be reduced below the quota of some of the people being transfered away. Alternatively, the quota could just be set to the droop quota despite the issues. Maybe somehow requiring that the power of each cabinet seat be balanced somehow. ___________________________________________________ Try the New Netscape Mail Today! Virtually Spam-Free | More Storage | Import Your Contact List http://mail.netscape.com ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
