Thursday 11 April 2013

First past the post is anarchy

There can be no legitimate government which does not have the consent of the people. And to make sure a legislature has the consent of the people we have elections which give control of the government to the people. But if we do not have proportional elections (and instead have first-past-the-post) then we cannot say that the people have been given a voice. If the government is elected via fptp then it will (eventually) be controlled by a two-party system which is not the full expression of democracy. To have the consent of the governed a government has no choice but to arrange proportional elections. Without pr the government is illegitimate because it does not have the consent of the people. For a government to be legitimate requires the consent of the people and by extension it requires pr. Without pr the government is not legitimate... there is no true government if there is not pr. Only with pr can we say that the government has legitimacy. To be legitimate the government must use pr it cannot use fptp. First past the post is not a legitimate system. There is no legitimate government if there is fptp.

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