Matthew Shugart reminds readers of tomorrow’s referendum in Ontario on adopting a mixed-member proportional electoral system to replace its existing purely constituency-based plurality system. If nothing else, it’s auspicious since this term I’m indulging my semi-closeted comparativist in my Introduction to Politics course—with the main theme considering representation and voting systems. Now, if only we were on the right chapter of Electoral Systems, although the chapter on plurality systems—where we are now—does talk a bit about electoral reforms: most notably, Labour’s long-promised but never-delivered referendum on electoral reform in Britain, dating back to 1997.
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3 comments:
You are using the same (and excellent) text that was used by the members of the Citizens Assemblies in both BC and Ontario for the “learning phase” of their process.
(OK, now I look below. I have to type not one, but TWO, words to prove—supposedly—that I am human, AND these words are not only distorted but also CROSSED OUT. Man, I am getting too old for this! And then I prove it by, apparently getting it wrong.)
Think of the bright side; at least you eventually passed the “human” test :)
On that whole human test thing, I suppose there have been reasons to have doubt, so it is indeed good news.
I think I was mistaken on the Farrell book. It was definitely used in BC, but I was looking at the Ontario Citizens’ Assembly report last night and it appears they used the IDEA Handbook (which is terrific, by the way) and a specially prepared textbook for Ontario called something like From Votes to Seats.
Anyway, it was all for naught. The referendum lost badly, at the same time that 42% of votes for the Liberals (4 points less than four years ago) translated into 66% of the seats. And 8% of votes for Greens (one of the highest ever for a national or state/provincial Green party in a non-PR election) translated into zero.
(Oh, how appropriate: My words are “Twice” and “irritation.” Or at least I think they are. I’ll know shortly…)