I wrote: But experience shows that > > real electors are more concerned about their communities > than about the > > exactitude of proportional representation.
Stephane replied: > My experience shows not!!! > My experience shows that only politicians are actually making > all they can to set this as a necessity. We shall have to disagree. Maybe it reflects differences between the electorates in our two countries. Maybe. I do, however, accept that our politicians make a great deal of fuss about this, especially those who are completely opposed to PR of any kind. Their protestations about the importance of the present single-member districts are just a smoke-screen for their opposition to reform that will (rightly) deprive them of single-party majority control for 35% to 45% of the votes. But locality is a real and important issue for electors. When asked relevant questions in surveys, there is strong support in Scotland for the idea of having a local representative. And I have seen at first hand in an STV-PR election in Northern Ireland, voters transfer their preferences across the parties to secure local representation. To those voters, PR of their locality was more important than PR of their preferred party. James ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
