… one in which the number of seats any party gets varies in proportion to its share of the popular vote, for instance …
we wouldn’t have to be talking about strategic voting at all.
Nor would we be faced with situations in which a party could win a majority in the House without enjoying anywhere near 50 percent popular support.
Imagine that. Instead of the dysfunctions inherent in our current First Past The Post system, we’d have a Parliament that actually reflected the will of the electorate in terms of how seats were distributed. Coalition-building and co-operation would become the norm, as they are in many parliamentary democracies, rather than rhetorical scare tactics.
The system would reward those who can negotiate and engage in give and take, working collaboratively with others, rather than taking a dictatorial my-way-or-the-highway approach.
And legislation would have to enjoy genuine popular support in order to be enacted.
What a shame it is that no one can think of a system like that. Why, it’s as if we haven’t made any progress at all since …
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe8zdyESTnQ]