Here's a look at what happened during the third weekend of the
members' Learning Phase, February 7-8, 2004.
Handouts provided to members can be downloaded here:
Session 1: Democratic electoral
systems
Session 2: Majority electoral
systems
Session 3: Plurality systems
The Agenda for Week 3:
ELECTORAL SYSTEMS, Part 1
Saturday February 7
Morning: How are democratic elections
organized?
How can we categorize electoral systems?
- Components (formula, ballot, DM) and their consequences
- Range of practice in democratic systems
- Families of electoral systems (Pl, M, PR, Mix, STV)
What are the big differences across families?
- Voting for people, voting for parties
- Basic impacts of electoral system families
Discussion Groups
* Review component concepts and interconnections
* Illustrate with country examples: ballots & counting
* Discuss dis/advantages of families
* Questions and discussion of presentation
Afternoon: Majority systems
- Principle of requiring a majority
- How do systems create majorities that do not exist?
Alternative vote: Australia
Second (sequential) balloting: France
- The costs and benefits of these 2 methods
Evaluation of majority systems in terms of our
criteria
- System: artificial majorities, party system concentration,
government dominance
- Voter: expanded choice, local representation
Majority systems in the BC context – the
1950s; how might it work now?
Discussion Groups
* Examine French and Australian ballots
* Counting processes and outcomes
* Compare with plurality systems
* Questions and discussion of presentation
Sunday February 8
Morning: The Plurality System
- Basic logic of the identifiable individual winner
- Consequence of first past the post
- Variations of the theme:
Multi-member
districts (block voting)
SNTV- several
‘firsts’ (intra-party competition)
Evaluation of plurality system in terms of our criteria
- System: artificial majorities, party system concentration,
government dominance
- Voter: limited choice, local representation
Discussion Groups
* Examine plurality ballots
* Comparisons with other systems
* How important is local representation?
* Do other plurality systems work better than ours?
* Questions and discussion of presentation