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> I wonder if in practice range voting tends to collapse into first-past-the-post Of course it will. The fundamental problem is selecting only one representati

by sampo 9y ago

> I wonder if in practice range voting tends to collapse into first-past-the-post Of course it will. The fundamental problem is selecting only one representative per voting district. However fancy and complicated voting algorithm you make, it will most probably collapse anyway. It's the size of the voting districts that leads to a two-party system, not the voting mechanics. But then: Just pool nearest 20 voting districts [x] into one large voting district, from which you elect 20 representatives, and any kind of simple proportional voting mechanics [xx] will do. If you elect 20 representatives, any party that manages to get at least 5% of the voes will get their representative to the Parliament. New political parties start to appear, and a multi-party system emerges on its own. [x] Or 15, or 30 or whatever. [xx] Such as the D'Hondt method, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Hondt_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Hondt_method

baddox 9y ago
It’s hard for me to imagine that the actual outcome of such a proportional representative system would be worse (in my judgment) than the current US federal district system, but the theoretical criticisms are obvious. For instance, it makes sense to have representatives represent a specific area who were supported by a majority of voters from that area. That way, the representative can in theory represent specific interests that are disproportionately important to citizens from that specific area (e.g. agricultural issues for rural areas or public transportation issues for urban areas). Of course, drawing these districts (in either system) is an inherently arbitrary process which can lead to counterintuive or obviously unideal results, the most obvious example of which being gerrymandering. But at the end of the day, unless we have a one world democracy, borders must be drawn. National borders are “easy” in the sense that they tend to be formed not by a democratic political process but rather historical conflict.

by sampo 9y ago

baddox 9y ago

It’s hard for me to imagine that the actual outcome of such a proportional representative system would be worse (in my judgment) than the current US federal district system, but the theoretical criticisms are obvious. For instance, it makes sense to have representatives represent a specific area who were supported by a majority of voters from that area. That way, the representative can in theory represent specific interests that are disproportionately important to citizens from that specific area (e.g. agricultural issues for rural areas or public transportation issues for urban areas). Of course, drawing these districts (in either system) is an inherently arbitrary process which can lead to counterintuive or obviously unideal results, the most obvious example of which being gerrymandering. But at the end of the day, unless we have a one world democracy, borders must be drawn. National borders are “easy” in the sense that they tend to be formed not by a democratic political process but rather historical conflict.