Re: counting methods

[Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know this may be considered increasingly off-topic, but NPR just had
a story noting that the Iraqi elections use Proportional
Representation.

Here are some web sites discussing the pros and cons:

 http://www.cfr.org/background/background_iraq_electionplan.php

 http://www.settingtheworldtorights.com/node/353

 http://www.meforum.org/article/608

-Neal

On Wed, Nov 10, 2004 at 10:26:18AM -0700, Neal McBurnett wrote:
> Thanks, Ralph, for the direct insight from your German friend.
> 
> Germany is interesting for more reasons than hand-counting.
> They use a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system, also known
> as personalized Proportional Representation, for choosing the
> members of the parliament, which is influential:
> 
>  a number of countries around the world have adopted the German system
>  for parliamentary elections, most notably among them New Zealand,
>  where voters approved the switch from the first-past-the-post system
>  to MMP in a 1993 referendum.
> 
> It is designed to represent more viewpoints than a system like ours,
> but to avoid the plethora of tiny parties and highly fragmented
> legislatures in the Weimar Republic that contributed to the rise of
> Hitler.
> 
> It also gives a lot of power to parties, rather than legislators.
> 
> A great overview, complete with example calculations, is at
> 
>  http://electionresources.org/de/
> 
> A sample ballot and info on the parties is at
> 
>   http://www.german-embassy.org.uk/elections_and_political_partie.html
> 
> Note the vote for parties on the right, and for "personalized"
> candidates on the left, most of whom are associated with one of the
> parties.
> 
> Info on other countries is at: http://electionresources.org/
> 
> Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
> Signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  GPG/PGP Keyid: 2C9EBA60