Sunday 26 January 2014

First past the post is a form of authoritarianism

If a democratic system is inherently monarchist then we cannot say that the system is anarchist. We might imagine that all forms of democracy are anarchist since the people would be unlikely to choose an authority above themselves (at least not knowingly). But if voters have only two (realistic) choices available to them then this is not anarchistic and the voters are subject to a form of authoritarianism even if it only concerns a duopoly and not a more serious monopoly. We are not free if there is some form of authoritarianism above us however benign it might at first appear. We can only be free under a democracy if the system ensures a proportional outcome. If the people are not given a proportional system of democracy then they are not free because there is a (democratic) authority above them.

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