On Aug 18, 2008, at 2:00 AM, James Gilmour wrote:
I have to say I just do not understand the obsession with "lists".
I can understand why countries that have used party list PR for
many decades are (mostly) content not to change, but those countries
have at least a century of a very different political culture
from that of the UK and those countries around the world which have
suffered the appalling British legacy of single-member electoral
districts and first-past-the-post plurality voting.
An assumption, I think, that voters won't have the patience and
attention span to evaluate a long list of candidates, and need the
crutch of party guidance to cast their votes.
I also think that fear is largely unfounded, at least in countries
with high literacy rates and good communications. Certainly here in
election-happy California the majority of our contests (though not the
highest-profile ones) are at least nominally nonpartisan, so that no
party identification appears on the (FPTP) ballot.
It's also easier to explain party lists than STV. Well, at least the
simpler variations; the more complicated MMD/top-up schemes are pretty
arcane.
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