Ed Weick wrote:
>
> > Ed,
> >
> > Yes, a good article ("There's no going back" by Thomas Homer-Dixon, Globe
> &
> > Mail, 11 September) and worth reading.
[snip]
> > The complexity of modern life has two main effects:
> >
> > (a) the vote will continue declining;
> >
> > (b) most developed countries (whether those with proportional
> > representation systems or first-past-the-post) will continue to drift
> > towards a two-party system with similar middle-of-the-road policies
> because
> > neither can afford to go out on a limb.
> >
> > I suggest that we're drifting steadily away from anything that can be
> > called "democracy" and towards special-interest representation (involving
> > maybe 20% of the population at the very most).
[snip]
What *about* the paradoxical structural aspect of voting that
if my vote determines the outcome and I know that it will, then
the election cannot be a fair one, i.e., my vote is meaningful
only if it is inefficacious (Except "statistically", of course --
read on!)
What about:
The limit of 1 divided by n as n approaches infinity is zero.
i.e., the more peopole vote, the less each person's vote matters.
--
Do we really believe that this paradoxical phenomenon is
acceptable as a form of life for rational beings (as oppose to
roulette wheels)?
I have always said that I would eagerly vote if a friend or
relative was running for office -- not because I would
think my vote mattered, but in hopes that publicity
surrounding my meaningless act would encourage enough other
persons to do the same meaningless act that the proportion of
the denominator favoring my friend/relative would be "winning"
and then I could participate in politics.
A representative democracy is a democracy of the
representatives (they discuss the disposition of the
world among themselves), even if -- as we hope --
is is a democracy *for* the people (a form of
benevolent paternalism).
If this is the least worst available alternative,
at least let's call it that instead of
selling ourselves short and selling ourselves it's
really good.
Etc.
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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