Comment
Great review by Steven Hill!
I completely agree that we should talk more about the underlying values that we want our democracy to support and foster, and should seek to enact electoral methods that would best live up to those values. Doug Amy's book is excellent, and is an ideal starting point for a discussion about electoral reform and/or a move to improved methods.
I also agree with the comments about approval and range voting systems. There is absolutely no question that candidates and campaigns would game those systems miserably to push their supporters towards bullet voting (or the range equivalent of that by suggesting supporters score opponents as low as possible). It's now wonder that those systems are not used in any real municipal elections anywhere.
posted by Rob Dickinson
October 15, 2008