On Mar 2, 2008, at 17:45 , Fred Gohlke wrote:
SEEKING IMPROVEMENT
We do not need partisanship, which sets one person against
another; we need independent representatives who will think for
themselves and reach intelligent decisions on matters of public
concern.
In other words, to improve our government, we must change the way we
select our representatives.
This sounds like you would be happy with something like STV. Parties
do cause problems but also the other extreme where the
representatives are all totally independent has some problems. I'd
expect the totally independent representatives to associate
themselves with some known groupings or ideologies to clarify their
position. And this is not that far from having a new party structure.
Another approach to expressing how the political system (of USA and
many other countries too) should change is to say that the party
behaviour and rules of behaviour should be improved. (Parties need
not be tyrants and nests of evil but just free groupings of people
with similar opinions.) Typical problems are having individual
representatives that have no own power but that need to follow the
policies set by the party leaders. Another might be too strong
connections to some interest groups. Third one might be lack of
contact to the voters and their true needs/interests. And fourth one
use of cheap propaganda instead of open discussion.
Any system has some tendency to corrupt in time. Political parties
and the political system are no exceptions. One needs to stay awake
and not let the system slide into something less good than what it
was or what people expect it to be or become.
One could also start by seeking the problems from the voters. There
is a saying that citizens will get as good government as they
deserve. I mean the voters that are well educated and that are
offered good information on the state and plans and actions of the
society throughout the election period may be capable of making wiser
decisions in the elections than those who are just briefly targets of
the marketing campaigns before the elections.
Political systems are always an embodiment of human nature. Until we
learn to harness our own nature, we can improve neither our
politics nor
our society.
Yes. One viewpoint to the evolution of our societies is that we are
on a journey from the laws of jungle towards societies that take the
human needs better into account. There is no reason to believe that
the current systems would be perfect. We have taken many steps from
the pure "laws of jungle" model but certainly also further improving
steps are possible.
Such changes occur slowly. Ought we not start to consider the methods
by which they can be accomplished?
Yes.
I do believe that many of the shortcomings of politics do have strong
links and may be traced back to the incumbent political parties and
the way they operate. But that doesn't necessarily mean that parties
would be evil as such, or that political systems without parties
would automatically perform better. Thorough understanding of the
dynamics of the political system is needed to make its operation
better (in small or large steps).
Juho
___________________________________________________________
Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail. "The New Version is radically easier to use" The Wall Street Journal
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
----
Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
