Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023Liked by Steven Hill
"The two candidates who advanced to the runoff were extremely polarizing … The moderate vote split in three"
Yes, the "center-squeeze effect" is deadly. Systems that suffer from center-squeeze and amplify polarization include:
* FPTP
* Two-Round Runoff (and Open Primaries)
* Supplementary Vote
* Contingent Vote
* Hare Ranked-Choice Voting (= RCV = "Instant-Runoff Voting" = "The Alternative Vote")
* Exhaustive Ballot
* Top Four
* Final Five
All of these systems are based on counting only first-choice rankings in each round, which means they suffer from vote-splitting, spoiler effect, and center-squeeze effect, and tend to eliminate the most-representative candidates while favoring extremists. Adding extra rounds ameliorates the problem somewhat, but doesn't actually fix it.
We need to educate people about this problem, abandon these broken voting systems, and adopt consensus-based systems that elect the best representative of the electorate as a whole and foster peaceful co-existence.
In the words of Peter Emerson:
"Majority rule based on majority voting was/is major cause of the Troubles, the near permanent stalemate in Israel/Palestine, the current dysfunction in the US, the difficulties in the COPs, the nonsense of Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Rwanda. Furthermore, 'all the wars in the former Yugoslavia started with a referendum'."
Much-needed sense in a time of senseless slaughter. Though I have little hope it will be heeded. These hatreds run too deep. And the original sin of Israel's creation by the UN (in a land already occupied, hence "original sin") cannot be addressed until the Palestinians either have a fully functioning state of their own, or are incorporated into a single state - a Greater Palestine or a Greater Israel. An alternative is for an empire to seize control (as in Roman and Ottoman times) and impose peace on the mutually hating parties. None of these solutions seems plausible (and certainly not all are equally desirable). And so the hemorrhaging will continue for as long as there is blood to spill. A tragedy of right versus right, and wrong versus wrong.
"The two candidates who advanced to the runoff were extremely polarizing … The moderate vote split in three"
Yes, the "center-squeeze effect" is deadly. Systems that suffer from center-squeeze and amplify polarization include:
* FPTP
* Two-Round Runoff (and Open Primaries)
* Supplementary Vote
* Contingent Vote
* Hare Ranked-Choice Voting (= RCV = "Instant-Runoff Voting" = "The Alternative Vote")
* Exhaustive Ballot
* Top Four
* Final Five
All of these systems are based on counting only first-choice rankings in each round, which means they suffer from vote-splitting, spoiler effect, and center-squeeze effect, and tend to eliminate the most-representative candidates while favoring extremists. Adding extra rounds ameliorates the problem somewhat, but doesn't actually fix it.
We need to educate people about this problem, abandon these broken voting systems, and adopt consensus-based systems that elect the best representative of the electorate as a whole and foster peaceful co-existence.
In the words of Peter Emerson:
"Majority rule based on majority voting was/is major cause of the Troubles, the near permanent stalemate in Israel/Palestine, the current dysfunction in the US, the difficulties in the COPs, the nonsense of Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Rwanda. Furthermore, 'all the wars in the former Yugoslavia started with a referendum'."
Much-needed sense in a time of senseless slaughter. Though I have little hope it will be heeded. These hatreds run too deep. And the original sin of Israel's creation by the UN (in a land already occupied, hence "original sin") cannot be addressed until the Palestinians either have a fully functioning state of their own, or are incorporated into a single state - a Greater Palestine or a Greater Israel. An alternative is for an empire to seize control (as in Roman and Ottoman times) and impose peace on the mutually hating parties. None of these solutions seems plausible (and certainly not all are equally desirable). And so the hemorrhaging will continue for as long as there is blood to spill. A tragedy of right versus right, and wrong versus wrong.
Important piece. Thanks.