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The downside with proportional representation is that it really only works as long as you have "near two party" conditions. I.e. two large parties plus a couple
by elcapitan 10y ago
The downside with proportional representation is that it really only works as long as you have "near two party" conditions. I.e. two large parties plus a couple of smaller parties are ok. Once you have many medium sized parties, the outcome of your vote on a respective government becomes completely unpredictable as well, because you will get pretty random coalitions. Because this forces all parties to get rid of major disagreements, it feeds fringe demagogues agitating against the "mainstream". Eventually those conditions can lead to "great coalitions" of the remaining larger parties, which then have 2/3 majorities and similar things you would want to avoid.
- lambertsimnel 10y agoThe problem we have in the UK is that multiparty politics has arrived and the existing First Past the Post system has the same problems and more. For example, it has a habit of handing power to a party without a majority of votes (randomly, when it doesn't produce coalitions). If you take the view that majority rule and minority rights is necessary for democracy, a majority government without a majority of votes is a problem. If you don't take that view, then you would probably want a different non-proportional voting system, but we've already rejected AV (instant runoff voting) in a referendum.