Proportional representation

[The New Consciousness]

Does it work? What are the benefits/pitfalls of such a system?

Thanks

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Generally proportionate representation can be seen as a form of bourgeois democracy.Every few years voters get to elect a party which supposedly will represent their interests. Elections are a "snapshot" of how voters feel at one particular instant. Proportionate representation can be seen as one more degree of separation between the majority of the people and the state.

I think most socialists would advocate direct economic democracy-networks of workers councils making decisions in terms of production, allocation, and distribution. Representatives would be paid the average worker's wage (assuming income differentials continue to exist) and would be subject to instant recall. The people in a society would be the ones to actually run their society, instead of a class of professional politicians sponsored by the ruling class.

There would be complete freedom of assembly in a socialist society, but my guess is that political parties as we know them either would not exist or would have a much different function.

[Demogorgon]

It is the most common electoral system-or rather family of electoral systems-amongst countries with competitive elections. So obviously it "works" as in it delivers results that are generally regarded as being fair.

You have to remember that there are quite a few different proportional systems. A few just involve selecting the party you support, but most involve picking candidates from a party list. Others involve choosing a candidate for your constituency and a party to achieve overall representation and others involve numbering all candidates in order of preference.

[Red Commissar]

Speaking from a strictly republican stand point, proportionate representation is better than the single-member districts or first-past-the-post system that the United States and I believe the UK maintain.

For the people in the centre, they don't like this system because it allows for the presence of far left or far right wing parties in their system.

At any rate though, it still can't avoid the pitfalls of having two major parties dominate the scene and form coalitions around themselves.

[Proletarian Ultra]

First past the post voting forces workers to choose between class collaboration and "throwing away their votes". PR does not. (Although it does force workers' parties to choose between class-collaboration and perpetually being out of government, but that's a different story).

For that reason PR should be at the center of any socialist party's minimum constitutional program, along with abolition of the upper house (if any), abolition of the monarchy and established church (if any), and extension of the franchise and voting rights.