How to Make Third Parties Viable
Fz has a good post up about third parties. I'd like to add that a really good way to increase the power of third parties would be to have all or part of the Congress elected by proportional representation. (See here for a good explanation of PR). This would virtually eliminate the concern about wasted votes that derails third parties today. My favorite version of such a plan, proposed to me by a professor, would retain the current system for the Senate but elect the House of Representatives in a national PR election. The change in the House would allow the rise of third parties, while Senators could continue to represent the interests of the individual states.
2 comments:
Would you want to eliminate separate state delegations in the House? That would require a constitutional amendment, one the states would never pass. Witness the governors of both California and Hawaii vetoing the current efforts to elect the president through a national popular vote.
Splitting it by state would be a lot better than what we have now, but still not ideal, especially in those places where they only have one seat in the House.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the comment. I would indeed like to eliminate separate state delegations to the house. You're right that the odds are slim to none of this ever happening... but a man can dream, can't he?
Post a Comment