Independence: Against the Party State

4 comments:

DLW said...

This is less likely to happen when one uses a mix of winner-take-all and winner-doesn't-take-all election rules. The initial intent behind the "vice-president" office was to make the presidential election a winner-doesn't-take-all election.

dlw

TiradeFaction said...

Wise words, but...I believe there have been a caseload of studies show casing any democratic system with a large enough population will always have political parties, formally or informally. Minnesota tried to abolish partisan designations for state legislators, and the state legislators themselves simply created their own parties within the legislature (the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party I believe they were called). After many decades, the voters said, “Look, we know you legislators have parties inside the legislature; isn’t time these parties came out in the open?” So the state constitution was amended, with popular approval, to bring back partisan elections.

Of course, Independent lawmakers and otherwise office holders are very important, just don't hold your breathe for an "independent majority" in any legislative body.

DLW said...

Collective action is inevitable and power always tends to corrupt...

dlw

Nancy Hanks said...

LOVE the picture of our first independent president AND the quote. Right on!

 
http://www.wikio.com