Comments on: Morning Round Up - 6.16.07 http://democraticpiece.com/2007/06/16/morning-round-up-61607/ Tentative conclusions on democracy & governance Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:13:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: The FairVote Blog » Fatah calls for proportional voting in Palestine http://democraticpiece.com/2007/06/16/morning-round-up-61607/#comment-17 The FairVote Blog » Fatah calls for proportional voting in Palestine Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:29:28 +0000 http://democraticpiece.com/2007/06/16/morning-round-up-61607/#comment-17 [...] future colleagues at the Democratic Piece have been following developments in the area. Fruits and Votes has a great piece on the initial election, and New America’s [...] [...] future colleagues at the Democratic Piece have been following developments in the area. Fruits and Votes has a great piece on the initial election, and New America’s [...]

]]> By: Jack http://democraticpiece.com/2007/06/16/morning-round-up-61607/#comment-14 Jack Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:15:37 +0000 http://democraticpiece.com/2007/06/16/morning-round-up-61607/#comment-14 The news about Palestine actually <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/15/153353/694" rel="nofollow">made it</a> to DailyKos, and one commenter <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/6/15/153353/694/162#c162" rel="nofollow">cited </a> an early paper I co-wrote at CVD. Part of the problem stems from Palestine's plurality at-large electoral system. In terms of raw popular votes, Fatah performed better than Hamas in the 2006 cycle. But Fatah over-nominated (usually by one candidate) in most districts. In a five, six, or seven-seat districts with plurality rules and polarized voting, that meant a Hamas sweep of the nominal tier. Some nitty-gritty consulting is in order. I'm biased in favor of a low-magnitude, preferential system like STV, but I suppose craftily drawn single-member districts or straight list PR would go some toward un-skewing representation. (Though SMD won't necessarily deal with over-nomination/spoiler issues.) The news about Palestine actually made it to DailyKos, and one commenter cited an early paper I co-wrote at CVD.

Part of the problem stems from Palestine’s plurality at-large electoral system. In terms of raw popular votes, Fatah performed better than Hamas in the 2006 cycle. But Fatah over-nominated (usually by one candidate) in most districts. In a five, six, or seven-seat districts with plurality rules and polarized voting, that meant a Hamas sweep of the nominal tier.

Some nitty-gritty consulting is in order. I’m biased in favor of a low-magnitude, preferential system like STV, but I suppose craftily drawn single-member districts or straight list PR would go some toward un-skewing representation. (Though SMD won’t necessarily deal with over-nomination/spoiler issues.)

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