Here's a thought: Due to human psychology, politics tends towards the
tribal, aided by the tendency of the media to portray elections as
sports contests. This only encourages people to vote for their "team",
and rather than expecting those elected to represent the best interests
of all citizens there is a tendency to act as if winning entitles them
to act in the interests of their own team at the expense of any
opposition - after all supporters of those who didn't get elected
shouldn't be sore losers, they should wait for their turn on top when
their team wins an election.
This is two-party politics, where it's assumed that voters should pick a
team and suffer any indignities in good grace during the years when
their team is out of office, biding their time until their "side" has
another turn on the wheel. But this is not the best possible way to run
a democracy; people who support candidates or views other than the two
main parties will rarely get much representation, and if the two main
parties are of one mind on various issues - such as the way to run the
system they are currently benefiting from - policies will be implemented
with little opportunity for opposition or even debate.
So my pie-in-the-sky suggestion is as follows: When electing Members of
Parliament by preferential voting, no party may gain more than one third
of the seats in the House of Representatives. Starting with the highest
vote counts, once any party reaches that number of members elected all
remaining votes for that party must be redistributed to other candidates
according to the voters' preferences. This would prevent the otherwise
inevitable formation and maintenance of a two-party system, and require
that every government be a coalition of parties that agree to work
together. It would also ensure that minor party voices would be heard
and given weight.
Of course minor parties are sometimes on the fringes, but if those views
are sincerely held by a significant fraction of the electorate, I
believe it's better that the views be heard, represented and debated,
however crazy or abhorrent. I'd rather have extremists expressing their
views in parliament than plotting violence against the system.
Just a thought for the day, anyway.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
