Let’s make a deal, Tom. Get proportional representation, one of the variations of voting that fixes first past the post, legislate away citizens united, and have fair, publicly funded elections, and you can have the party you want.
Countries with PR are having the same problems with fascism that first-past-the-post systems have. Also, PR gives more, not less power, to opportunistic centrists, since they’re often needed to form a coalition, which gives them massive leverage. In countries with PR, the centrists are often in every government, as the governments alternate between center-right and center-left.
PR might seem fairer in principle, but the notion that it’s some kind of panacea is unfounded. Like term limits, the benefits are almost entirely theoretical. And in both cases, the “miracle cure” can lead to antidemocratic anomalous outcomes when someone figures out how to game the system. And every system can and will be gamed.
Let’s make a deal, Tom. Get proportional representation, one of the variations of voting that fixes first past the post, legislate away citizens united, and have fair, publicly funded elections, and you can have the party you want.
Countries with PR are having the same problems with fascism that first-past-the-post systems have. Also, PR gives more, not less power, to opportunistic centrists, since they’re often needed to form a coalition, which gives them massive leverage. In countries with PR, the centrists are often in every government, as the governments alternate between center-right and center-left.
PR might seem fairer in principle, but the notion that it’s some kind of panacea is unfounded. Like term limits, the benefits are almost entirely theoretical. And in both cases, the “miracle cure” can lead to antidemocratic anomalous outcomes when someone figures out how to game the system. And every system can and will be gamed.