Good Evening,
re: "Do you examine all the candidates carefully and pick one who is
trustworthy and then pay little attention to what he does, or do you
pick someone less carefully and monitor him closely and then kick him
out at the next election if necessary."
We should examine all candidates carefully and pick the one most
characteristic of our attitudes and aspirations and most likely to
advocate issues in our interest. If we choose well, the need for
monitoring will be considerably lower than if we allow others to make
the choice for us.
re: "Groups are just groups of people, they derive their value from the
people who they represent."
That is not exactly true. Once formed, groups take on a life of their
own. The group leaders exploit or dismiss divergences among the
membership, depending on their own biases and their opinion of how best
to serve the group. As you say, though, their value is a derivative of
the number of people they can claim to represent. What this fails to
recognize is that while many may support the headline ideology of the
group, that ideology is a minor consideration in most legislation.
re: "I think making it reasonably easy for parties to form and having a
system which doesn't discriminate against independents helps a lot with
(preventing a party from attaining too much power)."
and: "A voting system that gives less of an advantage to incumbents is
an improvement ..."
and: "Similarly, a system that weakens parties centralised power is an
improvement."
I absolutely agree with all three points, but I also believe we must
recognize that humans naturally pursue their own interest, so we must
design our electoral process so that one's probity significantly affects
their ability to achieve public office; we must change election from a
carnival bathed in hyperbole and deceit to a sober, contemplative
process; we must create a political infrastructure where David Geffen's
assertion that, "Everybody in politics lies ...", is no longer a valid
description of the politics in our country.
Fred
----
Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
