Friday 9 August 2013

Fptp cannot be used because no one owns elections

We know that 'he that leaves as much as another can make use of does as good as take nothing at all' but in the case of democratic systems everyone is involved. We cannot take more than our fair share without unfairly prejudicing other people. Since everyone is involved in the outcome of elections then the democratic process can be considered to be a shared property like land. In a sense we can think of the democratic system as being part of the commons and as such it is the property of everyone not just a few. Since elections belong to everyone then no one can own the democratic process but if we do not use a proportional system then this is helpful to some and unhelpful to others. Then this use of a non-proportional system would help some and not others which is an invalid use of the commons. Since the commons is owned by all then we must use a fair (and hence proportional) system. No one owns elections and democracy which means we must make sure the political process doesn't favour some and not others... to have anything other than a fair and equal voting process is a violation of the non-ownership of elections. No one owns elections which means they must be fair. To have unfair elections indicates that the electoral process is 'owned' by some people which is invalid. Ownership of elections invalid so first past the post is invalid. We do not own elections and so we cannot use first past the post.

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