One way to put things in perspective on a list like this is to remember that Proportional Representation was eliminated in NYC because it allowed Communists to be elected to the city council.
Now to the specifics of this objection:
boddhisatva wrote:
>
> To whom...,
>
>
> The problem with proportional representation is that it puts more
> power into the hands of the political party.
Not necessarily. There are a wide variety of ways to implement proportional representation. The way that I favor--specifically BECAUSE it empowers the grass roots rather than party leadership--is called STV -- single transitive vote - also known as preference voting. This entails voting for candidates, not parties. You can vote first for a Green, then for a Peace and Freedom, etc. If your first candidate is eliminated or elected, then your vote is transfered to the second & so forth.
The list system used in most European systems does indeed strengthen parties. But there's also a mixed system in which you vote for all the candidates on a party list in order of preference. This allows the voters, rather than the party functionaries, to determine the order of election.
> While it may increse diversity in the short run, the very
> problem that American politics is overcome by at the moment
> is the excessive power of *party* money in politics.
Obviously camapign finance reform is necessary for democracy to work.
But it's not sufficient.
Proportional representation makes money politics less effective and people politics more effective, but of course it is no more a substitute for sweeping campaign finance reform than campaign finance reform is a substitute for proportional representation. Both are needed.
> Proportional representation would only increase that power.
Only under a set of assumptions that I've explicitly repudiated.
> The real issue is access to the voters and the political party is
> actually the antique solution to that problem. The technology is
> available to create nationwide soapboxes and that is the real answer to
> diverse politics.
We're talking apples and oranges here. What good are nationwide soapboxes when candidates are running in small geographical districts?
In order to make such soapboxes relate to actual political power, Proportional Representation is the only conceivable mechanism.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"