Nobody’s mentioned electoral reform yet? The current incentive structures for the US two-party system are laughably bad right now.
I’ve been wondering whether it’s worthwhile to try and get people in Silicon Valley behind a local electoral reform (alternative vote or proportional representation or whatever, at the municipal level), on the theory that this is the only way to get momentum for larger-scale reform. Plus, there are plenty of things that seriously need reforming on the local level, but are dominated by the cartel of the few folks who currently vote in municipal elections. (Zoning being an obvious example; NIMBYism toward housing development in the Bay Area takes a staggering toll on everyone but homeowners.)
Alternative vote is Instant Runoff Voting, right? If so, then it’s bad, for it fails the monotonicity criterion. That means that raising one’s vote re a particular candidate doesn’t necessarally do the obvious thing.
Personally, I favor Approval Voting, since it seems to be the simplest possible change to our voting system that would still produce large gains.
(Also, would be nice if we (the US, that is) could switch to algorithmic redistricting and completely get rid of the whole gerrymandering nonsense.)
Nobody’s mentioned electoral reform yet? The current incentive structures for the US two-party system are laughably bad right now.
I’ve been wondering whether it’s worthwhile to try and get people in Silicon Valley behind a local electoral reform (alternative vote or proportional representation or whatever, at the municipal level), on the theory that this is the only way to get momentum for larger-scale reform. Plus, there are plenty of things that seriously need reforming on the local level, but are dominated by the cartel of the few folks who currently vote in municipal elections. (Zoning being an obvious example; NIMBYism toward housing development in the Bay Area takes a staggering toll on everyone but homeowners.)
Alternative vote is Instant Runoff Voting, right? If so, then it’s bad, for it fails the monotonicity criterion. That means that raising one’s vote re a particular candidate doesn’t necessarally do the obvious thing.
Personally, I favor Approval Voting, since it seems to be the simplest possible change to our voting system that would still produce large gains.
(Also, would be nice if we (the US, that is) could switch to algorithmic redistricting and completely get rid of the whole gerrymandering nonsense.)