Proportional Representation

[bautiste at uswest.net]

Anyone heard of political science studies that seem to indicate and explain why
3rd/4th parties won't work in America? On another note: I think Whitrow is
right about the kind of split he sees in the public and the chances of other
parties. Yet, I see the Green Party, for example, as a way to bring together
disparate parts of the electroate from the left wings of the dems and Reps, as
well as offering a voice for the less militant militia-types.

Chris Burford wrote:


> At 07:38 PM 8/24/98 -0700, Paul Rosenberg wrote:
>
> >But if we set aside empirical considerations for a moment and focus on
> >the bare-bones of theory--not theory as in conjecture, but theory as in
> >how it works--something astonishing comes into focus: ONLY proportional
> >representation allows for majority rule.
>
> I too am in favour of proportional representation in Britain and the US, as
> ways of weakening the bourgeois two party system. But we need to understand
> in some depth from a marxist point of view what happens now and how it
> might change. One of the shifts is in undermining any simplistic sense of
> bourgeois democracy: that an election allows the majority to "rule".
>
> It is a rather process of equilibrated conflicts and interests. A system of
> proportional representation seems to require interests to be examined more
> carefully, and endless compromises to be reached, but to be done so
> relatively openly, rather than in secret deals.
>
> It may also allow minority views of course to be presented and the left
> must decide whether they would rather have that platform for the price of
> having to address directly the reasons why another minority may follow
> populist rightist leaders. Because populist rightist leaders are not the
> main enemy, my feeling is that we should be prepared to take on that
> challenge.
>
> Does anyone claim to have made a marxist analysis of proportional
> representation?
>
> Chris Burford

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