Friday 30 January 2009

Dappy Ideas for Democracy #1

This one's for the ladiez.

Like, umm. The principle of supermajorities is already in use in the US democratic system. The senate needs a supermajority to end a fillibuster. And for a good reason - fillibusters are neat.

Why not mitigate some of the disadvantages of the first past the post system (voter apathy, wasted votes, tactical voting, et cetera) by rigging the presidential powers to the proportion of the popular vote the winner achieves (weighted according to turn-out)? That way it's more reasonable to vote for your guy, even if you happen to live in a safe seat state.

So, like. If the President has done a W. 2000 and won the electoral vote, but not the popular vote, zhe doesn't get to make so many federal appointments. Maybe there could be civil society institutions waiting in the wings to make these appointments. Or let foreign governments do it! Also, the President doesn't get the power of selective pardon. Either nobody gets pardons, or everybody gets one.

Or if the President gets a big mandate from the popular vote, tilt the balance of power zher way by requiring only a 2/5 Senate approval for Supreme Court appointments.

For really upper echelon shares of the popular vote, the President gets incredibly powerful technomancy anime attacks.

Maybe this could all be relativised according to what popular mandates have been achieved by the legislature and the judiciary's SAT scores.

These are just examples, they're probably not "tweaky" enough!

Anyway, the situation on the ground is fast overwhelming these fanciful & reformists maggotes in my brain: the results of yesterday's by-election in Stoke Newington show a swing of 0.4% from Labour to Green since 2006!

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