Monday 2 March 2015

Proportional (popular) representation is not left wing

Part of the problem with a first-past-the-post voting system is that (if we assume the emergence of a two-party system) voters on the right must be loyal to the established party to keep out the party of the left. In the UK, people must vote for the Tory party in order to block the party of the left, the Labour party. This might not seem too much of a problem if voters do not mind voting for the Tory party but this might not be appealing to many people, to begin with there is a kind of monopoly being established if there is only one party centre-right voters can choose.

The conventional thinking is often that the same applies on the left, non-Tory voters are compelled to vote for the Labour party and because this effect is symmetrical there is nothing to be concerned about and the problem cancels out. But this is not the correct approach given that people on the left do not mind so much to be forced into voting for a monopolistic party... that is to say that their ideology aligns well with this imposition. It is not a contradiction for the left to be expected to remain loyal to (and vote for) only one party. It is voters on the right who are more rebellious and will be less inclined to vote for the party which they are expected to vote for.

Democracy is intended to weaken the state otherwise it serves no purpose so then the most effective kind of democracy is that which is bad for the state and hence bad for the left. If voters are given more choice this is bad for the left even if a preponderance of the voting public are on the left. The reason is that voting and elections will always constrain the state even if a large state is popular... if the voting public are left-wing then the absence of elections would lead to even more government and totalitarianism. Just because voters seem to be left-wing doesn't mean that democracy is left-wing because the state might be even more totalitarian in the absence of democracy.

Democracy is efficient if it protects the people from the government which means to protect the people from the left. All state oppression is left-wing so then the best (and most democratic) voting system is that which gives the voter the greatest possible ability to reject the state. We know that there are many people who do not like either of the main two parties and since these 'rebellious' votes are lost then the system is protecting the state. If rebellious votes are lost then this is to the advantage of the state and this means that the system is left-wing.

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