Monday 14 January 2013

Proportional representation brings freedom

We can assume in the long run and with all (other) things being equal that people want freedom. From time to time they will vote for some form of interventionist socialism but overall they will choose to have no masters and to be free. This means that (unless we do not want freedom) it is best to choose the voting system which will make it the most easy for the voters to get freedom... which is proportional representation. If people are forced to use fptp they will be able to choose the least disliked party of the two available which means they will be getting less freedom than they want. The government is the mechanism which reduces (personal) freedom for the good of the rest of the population. Government reduces freedom but (we hope) in a beneficial way. So when people are frustrated by democracy and the government it is (always) because they are not getting enough freedom. So when they are frustrated by their insufficient choice in only having two viable parties it means they otherwise would have voted for more freedom. When fptp is frustrating it is because we cannot get enough freedom from the two-party system. The fptp system is always an impediment to freedom. The political parties do not impose more freedom on the population than they want. Democracy is the means by which the people 'push back' on the government to get more (not less) freedom. Democracy gives us freedom but if we do not have enough choice then it works less well. More democracy always leads to more freedom so we would want to introduce pr where it is not already in use. Democracy brings freedom (which is what people want)... so we would want to use pr wherever possible.

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