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Rich Constituencies

hybrid of FPP and PR systems. [earnest]
 
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The vocabulary here applies to the British House of Commons, but the idea is equally applicable for all elected chambers.

Each Member is elected with a certain majority. In the Uk this is typically between 2 and 10,000. This majority is the number of votes he or she or it (new pronoun: 'horseshit') can spend on Bills during the entire legislative year. This way, Members who represent bedrock 1-party areas such as Scotland and Wales will no longer be ignored; in fact they will become the 'richest' & have more sway than Members who've snuck into undecided suburban constituencies by splitting a vote. While the government in power is still determined by the extremely stable First Past the Post system (by number of members), the weight of voting follows the intuitively fairer geometry of Proportional Representation.

In practice, Whips will still control the overall strategy of voting patterns while backbenchers (junior members) will be able to husband more carefully their voting resources for tactical purposes, saving a big burst for an issue they care more deeply about.

Equally, the Opposition could throw itself on the grenade of stopping a Government bill (say, Hunting or the Lords) at the price of fatally weakeningitself for the rest of the Parliament. A price they would probably pay, once or twice a decade, in my opinion. This also applies to the third party (Lib Dems).

Thirdly, it'll soak up some of our legislators' energy & give politics a whole new level of complexity. Who knows, maybe Members could even collect power-ups for every job created in their constituency...

General Washington, Nov 18 2002

[link]






       sp: FPTP (first-past-the-post).   

       Toodle-oo everybody. Enjoy yourselves.
—NickTheGreat's final post
NickTheGreat, Nov 18 2002
  

       <Munchkins>Ding Dong, the Nick is dead</Munchkins>
thumbwax, Nov 18 2002
  

       It would make Dubya's presidency most entertaining... Also - no more campaigning in marginals - go for the heartlands for the maximum impact.
whimsickle, Nov 19 2002
  

       Yes, not much to say about it is there. Clever I suppose. NEXT!
General Washington, Nov 19 2002
  

       Hmm - this would mean that, with the results of the latest UK General Election, Labour would have 3.9 million votes, Conservative 1.15 million votes, the Lib Dems 287,000 votes and no other party having more than 35,000. Also, one-third of the MPs were elected with a majority of more than 10,000. I'm not sure how this leads to Parliament being any less unrepresentative than it already is. -
PeterSilly, Nov 19 2002
  

       So, this would replace the current system of representative democratic government, where everything is fixed behind the scenes by a tiny clique of wealthy and powerful people, and special interest groups with their own hidden agenda, for their own benefit and amusement ? I don't think they're going to like your idea much, General - start running now, before the Men In Black come for you ........
8th of 7, Nov 19 2002
  

       A better (?) idea would be to replace each individual's vote with either the number of votes cast for that individual or the proportion of votes received by that individual. This way, Mr Blair gets either 26,110 votes or 0.6486 votes. The first way, the MPs votes directly correlate to the support they have in the nation, and the second way is close.
PeterSilly, Nov 20 2002
  

       I think the weakness of this scheme would lie in the fact that, to optimize their voting power over the year, the government would seek to win each vote by a margin of as close to one as possible. Cue endless silly games of brinkmanship.   

       The principle that the voting power of each legislator should be related to [possessive form of 'horseshit'] majority or share of vote is good, but this implementation of it is not.   

       And 'horseshit' as a pronoun is brilliant.
pertinax, Oct 06 2006
  
      
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