Typical Council Elected by a Plurality Rule

The 1800s: Winner-Take-All Districts lead to Off-Center Councils. Some English-speaking nations still use England's old plurality rule. It elects only one representative from a district, and winning it does not require a majority. So only the largest party in a district is represented. This rule tends to reward just two big political parties. Voters get just two real candidates, who offer just two kinds of policies — a very limited choice. The largest party (blue in picture) rules the council. A small change in the popular vote can shift all power, making policies swerve from side to side. This is a war of winner take all.

Typical Council Elected by a PR Rule

1900s: Fair-Share Representation leads to Off-Center Majorities. Proportional Representation (PR) was invented in the 1800s to end some problems caused by plurality rule. Most democracies adopted PR in the 1900s. It elects several people to represent each large district. PR can give a group that wins, say 10% of the votes, 10% of the council seats; thus PR always gives large groups their fair shares of seats. It leads to broad representation of issues and opinions. But usually there is no central party (C in picture); and the two biggest parties rarely work together. So the side with the most seats (blue and black) forms the ruling majority;— and then enacts policies skewed toward their side.

Ensemble Elected by Central and PR Rules

2000s: Ensemble Councils lead to Broad, Centered Majorities. New ensemble councils will elect most reps by PR, plus a few by a central voting rule (C in picture). The next page shows how a central rule picks winners with wide appeal and views near the middle of the voters. Its winners are thus near the middle of a PR council.  So they are the council's powerful swing votes.  Most voters in the winners' wide base of support don't like averaged or centrist policies. They want policies to unite the best ideas from all groups.

A “centrist policy” enacts a narrow point of view; it excludes other opinions and needs. A “one-sided policy” also ignores rival ideas. A “compromise policy” tries to negotiate rival plans. But opposing plans forced together often work poorly; and so does the average of rival plans. In contrast, a “balanced policy” unites compatible ideas from all sides. This process needs advocates for diverse proposals. And more than that, it needs  powerful moderators.
A broad balanced majority works to enact broad balanced policies — which give the greatest chance for happiness to the greatest number of people. Excellent policies are a goal of accurate democracy. Their success is measured in a typical voter's education and income, freedom and safety, health and leisure. An ensemble is inclusive; yet it is strongly centered and decisive. Voting rules for policies and spending can follow this pattern. These will make the organization more popular, stable and quick. They are likely to avoid the one-sided results and tragedies at the top of this and other pages.

Students may be most interested in 1) the primer on voting rules, 2) the workshop on movable votes, 3) the simulation tool PoliticalSim™

 

A Map to Accurate Democracy       Six practical uses for voting shape this ebook.   Please read the introductions to all six tasks to see their variety.   The concepts build from one voting situation to the next.
Elections			Legislation
1 Chair	2 Reps	3 Council	4 Policy	5 Projects	6 Budgets
Ballot Pictorial Tally IRV Others Tactics Districts	Merits Women STV Visual STV Pictorial 2 2D charts Ballots	Merits Merits 2 CW+STV Others Notes Seats Shares	Motions Ballots Trades Tactics Cycles Others Amend	Uses Needs Notes Sim Ballots Tallies LAR	Follies Ballots Others Notes Medians HZ Points Coalitions
Condorcet's rule fills chapter 1 on electing a chairperson. Chapter 4 on setting a policy looks at it more deeply. Chapters 3 and 5 also use it. Transferable votes are introduced by IRV and STV in chapters 1 and 2. Chapters 5 and 6 show how they can fund projects and departments.

The key terms of this ebook (Condorcet, fair shares, and transferable votes) occur in almost every chapter. So the Table of Contents may help more than a search.	Printouts.
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We welcome questions and suggestions: © 1996-2008 AccurateDemocracy

Next: a voting rule primer

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Irish playwright G. B. Shaw satirized chauvinist pride
and ignorance in some leaders of the British Empire.
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. . .

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Searching for more? This discipline is fractured by many synonyms.  Even its title varies: some call it public choice; others prefer social choice.  College courses that look at voting theory include economics and comparative politics or comparative government.  The table below has many terms that can help you find similar web sites. You will find most of these terms include topics other than formulas for calculating winners from ballots.  Searching for "voting systems" will bring you most often to sites that sell voting equipment.  So will "election systems" and "ballot systems". "Election rules" bring up ballot access, campaign funding, media regulation and other laws while missing legislative voting. "Voting procedures" or "methods" suggest instructions for casting ballots. "Tally rules" is good but may neglect ballots or mean tallies of things other than votes. "Voting rules" seems the simplest term for ways of casting and counting votes.   Search Terms   Adjectives Nouns Voting Election Tally Ballot Rules voting rules election rules tally rules ballot rules Systems voting systems election systems tally systems ballot systems Methods voting methods election methods tally methods ballot methods Procedures voting procedures election procedures tally procedures ballot procedures The election chapters' terms for electing, nominating or selecting a: 1) chairperson, chair, chairman, chairmen, chairwoman, chairwomen; president, prime minister or judge; 2) representative, rep, senator, congressman, congresswoman, minister, member, MP or delegate -- representatives, reps, senators, congressmen, congresswomen, ministers, members, MPs or delegates; 3) council, legislature, parliament, house of commons, senate, congress, house of representatives, assembly, meeting, convention, board of directors or sub committee; The legislation chapters' terms to enact, set, pass, fund or budget: 1) policies, programs, laws, rules or regulations; 2) projects, grants, earmarks or proposals; 3) budgets, departments, agencies or programs; Please try PoliticalSim tm (political sim), a free open-source political simulation game for Windows, and SimElection tm, electoral simulation software for Macintosh, for interactive simulations of approval voting, Borda rule, Condorcet rules (minmax or Copeland), instant runoff voting (IRV, alternative vote, Hare), majority rule, plurality rule (aka first past the post, FPTP), proportional representation (list PR, full representation, proportional voting), single transferable vote (STV, choice voting), cumulative vote, limited vote, bloc vote and other voting rules.   Humor question 1        More humor questions        Next pages