The UK needs a new electoral system – should it copy Scandinavia?
The UK needs a new electoral system – should it copy Scandinavia?
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The UK needs a new electoral system – should it copy Scandinavia?
12 comments
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Australia may be a better bet. It preserves the culturally ingrained assumption that each electorate has one MP (at least in the main chamber of parliament), though these are elected using STV preferential voting. (There is an upper house which is proportionally elected per state, though it acts as a house of review, much like the Lords.) You also have compulsory voting (or at least showing up at a polling place or having a good excuse), which makes it harder for parties to win by riling up highly motivated fringe groups.
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Personally I hate the "one MP per area" aspect of our system. You only have one person to raise issues with and they may not be sympathetic to your views.
Multi-member constituencies it's much more likely that you can get your issue heard by someone who won't dismiss you.
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The UK should not apply Australia's affirmative vote system since the results are less proportional to what the voters actually voted. Anglophones should not be afraid of having more than one mp per riding since multi-member riding districts properly reflect the vote shares. You can go with 5-member ridings instead.
Proportional representation fairly represents 95% of the vote while first-past-the-post and the instant-runoff ranked ballots do not.
Proportional Representation is a family of voting systems with various flavors such as:
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Abolish the State
12 comments
Absolutely proportional representation blows first-past-the-post out of the water in many regards.