Monday 17 February 2014

Proportional representation is a moral obligation

For most people to be moral requires only that we do no crime... if we do not violate the rights of other people then this is sufficient to be a law-abiding person. The state however is slightly different in that it does have positive obligations. The most obvious of the obligations of the state is that it must be accountable to the people and hold elections. If the state assumes power without being democratically elected then it is acting in an immoral way and it is guilty of a crime. The state has a moral obligation to hold elections.

But not all elections are alike... if the state uses a winner-takes-all system then this gives an advantage to the larger political parties which can lead to an aristocratic state oligarchy surrounding the two main parties. To remedy this it is possible to have elections which (almost) guarantee proportionality. If the state doesn't use a proportional voting system then we can assume that the state is acting deliberately against the people and this (in a democracy) is a crime. The state has an obligation to hold democratic elections but it also has an obligation to make sure those elections are proportional. If the state doesn't provide proportional elections then it is illegitimate. The state has a moral obligation to make sure the means by which it is elected is proportional. The state is immoral if it doesn't use a system of proportional representation.

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