Just to point out that there are consequentialist arguments for first past the post, namely that it leads to stable majority governments and a small number of well-defined political parties.
I don’t think that’s the case. The US doesn’t have well-defined parties but different wings of the same party that frequently vote differently on issues in parliament. That’s different then German parties where usually the party first finds an internal position and then uniformly votes according to that position.
That happens because in the US a politican only needs the support of the constituents in his constiency and donor support (which can be gotten independently of party infrastracture even if the party sometimes helps with that). On the other hand German polictians need the support of their party beyond their voting district to get a place on the party list.
Just to point out that there are consequentialist arguments for first past the post, namely that it leads to stable majority governments and a small number of well-defined political parties.
I don’t think that’s the case. The US doesn’t have well-defined parties but different wings of the same party that frequently vote differently on issues in parliament. That’s different then German parties where usually the party first finds an internal position and then uniformly votes according to that position.
That happens because in the US a politican only needs the support of the constituents in his constiency and donor support (which can be gotten independently of party infrastracture even if the party sometimes helps with that). On the other hand German polictians need the support of their party beyond their voting district to get a place on the party list.
The US is politically a very gridlocked country.