After class yesterday, I realized that of course my rave about voting systems did have direct relevance to our course.
If you think about compulsory voting as being a Theory X approach, you then sweeten that with the more "Theory Y" approach of user-friendly elections and preferential votes that count, then people willingly support the imposed rule.
This is not unlike Russell's presentation on the rules at his school. He didn't say get rid of the rules; he said just present them to staff in way that is more respectful of their needs and emphasizes support functions instead of control.
And speaking of outcomes of first-past-the-post v preferential systems. In Maine a Tea Party Republican won the governor’s race with 38.3% of the vote, because a Independent with 36.5% and the Democrat with 19.1% split the progressive vote. In Australia's preferential voting system, which would immediately re-distribute the Democrat vote, the progressive Independent would win by a 15-20 point margin; in Maine it means the Republican will be governor. Which system better reflects "the will of the people"?
John
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