7 ms·

Just as radical, yes, but likely more effective would be to limit the size of political parties.

Judgmentality 8y ago
A much simpler and more effective method would be to create a minimum of 3 official political parties. That way it would not be entirely us-vs-them and so many other benefits, including a rank voting system which is so much better. I believe, with no hard evidence, that a 3 party system could solve most of the political problems facing the United States today. Because it would remove the incentives to be impossible to work with (although I feel this applies to one party more than the other, it definitely goes both ways).
- int_19h 8y ago
  If you create an electoral system that has ranked voting and, ideally, party-proportional representation (e.g. straight up party lists, or MMP), then you'll get more political parties pretty much automatically. As it is, we already have more than 3 parties (not sure what "official" means in this context, since you don't really have to register a party in US for it to meaningfully exist). The problem is Duverger's Law, which confines mainstream politics to the top two, and presents a near-insurmountable barrier for everybody else.
  - Judgmentality 8y ago
    You might find this interesting http://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/
int_19h 8y ago
What do you mean by this? Limit the number of seats they can get in the legislature? What happens with all the excess votes if they hit the cap? In US specifically, this would also require recognizing that parties are even a thing. There's nothing in the Constitution that says anything about parties, and federal elections don't elect parties - they elect individual representatives, who happen to be affiliated with some party (sometimes not even in any official way - much like e.g. Bernie Sanders is an independent senator, even though in practice he votes with Democrats most of the time).

A much simpler and more effective method would be to create a minimum of 3 official political parties. That way it would not be entirely us-vs-them and so many other benefits, including a rank voting system which is so much better. I believe, with no hard evidence, that a 3 party system could solve most of the political problems facing the United States today. Because it would remove the incentives to be impossible to work with (although I feel this applies to one party more than the other, it definitely goes both ways).

int_19h 8y ago
If you create an electoral system that has ranked voting and, ideally, party-proportional representation (e.g. straight up party lists, or MMP), then you'll get more political parties pretty much automatically. As it is, we already have more than 3 parties (not sure what "official" means in this context, since you don't really have to register a party in US for it to meaningfully exist). The problem is Duverger's Law, which confines mainstream politics to the top two, and presents a near-insurmountable barrier for everybody else.
- Judgmentality 8y ago
  You might find this interesting http://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/

int_19h 8y ago

What do you mean by this? Limit the number of seats they can get in the legislature? What happens with all the excess votes if they hit the cap? In US specifically, this would also require recognizing that parties are even a thing. There's nothing in the Constitution that says anything about parties, and federal elections don't elect parties - they elect individual representatives, who happen to be affiliated with some party (sometimes not even in any official way - much like e.g. Bernie Sanders is an independent senator, even though in practice he votes with Democrats most of the time).