[lbo-talk] Wisconsin recall results

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 16 14:41:09 PDT 2011


CB: "CB: Yes, but since majority rules in vulgar democracy, how does a minority win a change of the whole system like this ? The answer is simple , but implementing the answer is very, very difficult, no ?"

[WS:] Democracies have not been created equal. Arend Lijphart (_Patterns of Democracy_) distinguishes two kinds: majoritarian - prevalent in the US and other English speaking countries; and consensus - prevalent in the continental Europe and countries with proportional representation. He argues that consensus democracy is superior in representing minority interests, providing social protection, conflict resolution and violence control. I may add to this list the fact that socialist and social democratic parties do relatively well in consensus democracies had have had zero success in majoritarian ones.

As far as I can see, there is no such a thing as a majority, especially in the countries like the US, which can be best described as a plurality of minorities. Most of those minorities are not represented politically - so it should be be difficult to convince them that they have nothing to lose with the current system and they can win something with a PR system.

Wojtek

^^^^^ CB: Just for fun this reminds me of Will Rogers in WWI saying he knew how to deal with German submarines: drain the ocean. Someone asked how do we drain the Atlantic Ocean? Rogers says I gave you the solution. You figure out how to do it. Then there's someone lost on a back country road who asks locals how to get to Hillville. They answer: You can't get there from here.

More seriously, the capitalists have succeeded in alienating most of those not represented from voting. So, a major step in your plan would be to convince non-voters to vote - for your new system, maybe and that they are not voting for a pig in the poke.



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