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While I think IRV is a better system than we have, I think it concentrates on the wrong problem. In practice it only really works on high profile elections whe

While I think IRV is a better system than we have, I think it concentrates on the wrong problem. In practice it only really works on high profile elections where all of the candidates get plenty of public scrutiny. The lower houses like the Senate and House, especially at the state level, usually receive very little scrutiny compared to governors and presidents. But the real power lies more in these lower houses than with the heads of state. They really only have power because their political party already has a significant control in the lower houses. The lower houses usually have the power to override anything the head of state does, and the vast majority of the power the head of state has are just things the lower houses has designated to him/her, which they can just as easily take away. So I think the real issue is to open up the lower chambers to third parties, and that's best done through the use of Proportional Representation. IRV will not work at that level, because very few races are scrutinized by the public very much. Proportional Representation also eliminates Gerrymandering (or significantly reduces it depending on how it's implemented). Once you've got a significant number of third parties in the lower chambers, whoever is head of state really doesn't matter that much. Since they'll have to work with pretty much everyone in the lower chambers to get anything done.

specialist 8y ago
Approval voting for executive positions, proportional representation for assemblies. The upper house (eg Senate) in bicameral systems is a special case. I'm undecided if they should be abolished (7 states have more Senators than Representatives) or our state boundaries redrawn.
- philwelch 8y ago
  The Senate, and the changes to Senate balance caused by granting statehood, already was a contributing factor to one civil war. It also disenfranchises many Americans: DC has large populated areas that aren't part of any state, but Democrats insist on turning DC into a state in its own right (which would give them 2 extra Senators) while Republicans don't want the Democrats to have 2 extra senators, so the most they would agree to is retrocession to Maryland (similar to how Alexandria was retroceded to Virginia), which the Democrats won't accept because then they get 0 extra senators. (Most DC residents would prefer statehood, but then, most DC residents would also vote Democrat, and it's hard to tease out the conflicting motivations of "we want to have representation" and "we want our side to be more powerful in Congress".) Puerto Rico also seems to want statehood, but there's no progress on getting it for them for various reasons I don't fully understand. Redrawing state boundaries would either be politically impossible, or could only happen with a large enough national one-party supermajority that it would basically amount to gerrymandering anyway.

specialist 8y ago

Approval voting for executive positions, proportional representation for assemblies. The upper house (eg Senate) in bicameral systems is a special case. I'm undecided if they should be abolished (7 states have more Senators than Representatives) or our state boundaries redrawn.

philwelch 8y ago
The Senate, and the changes to Senate balance caused by granting statehood, already was a contributing factor to one civil war. It also disenfranchises many Americans: DC has large populated areas that aren't part of any state, but Democrats insist on turning DC into a state in its own right (which would give them 2 extra Senators) while Republicans don't want the Democrats to have 2 extra senators, so the most they would agree to is retrocession to Maryland (similar to how Alexandria was retroceded to Virginia), which the Democrats won't accept because then they get 0 extra senators. (Most DC residents would prefer statehood, but then, most DC residents would also vote Democrat, and it's hard to tease out the conflicting motivations of "we want to have representation" and "we want our side to be more powerful in Congress".) Puerto Rico also seems to want statehood, but there's no progress on getting it for them for various reasons I don't fully understand. Redrawing state boundaries would either be politically impossible, or could only happen with a large enough national one-party supermajority that it would basically amount to gerrymandering anyway.