la revolution

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
Mon Aug 24 14:47:20 PDT 1998


On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:


> why do you think that proportional representation is more conducive to
> social democracy than first past the post?

Because PR systems are simply more democratic, and when people actually bother to go out and vote, it's possible to organize significant Left majorities. The reason is simple: first-past-the-post means, 51% takes the cake. You get a situation where, on a national level, even a minority of the popular vote can sweep to total electoral victory. With PR, 5% of the votes gets 5% of the seats, so small and medium-size parties can flourish. They get political airtime, people see a direct result for their vote, and consequently you can mobilize folks to fight capital's agenda in a serious way. The US political system is, due to its 18th century structure, vastly less democratic than countries like Poland and the Czech Republic. I think only Britain and the US are the last countries which practice first-past-the-post; even hapless, hopeless, neoliberalized New Zealand dumped their old system recently and moved to PR.

Just one more proof, as if we needed it, that the US is going down the toilet of world history.

-- Dennis



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