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Real choices/new voices : how proportional representation elections could revitalize American democracy / Douglas J. Amy.
Van Pelt Library JF1075.U6 A49 2002
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Amy, Douglas J.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Proportional representation--United States.
- Proportional representation.
- United States.
- Elections--United States.
- Elections.
- United States--Politics and government--20th century.
- Politics and government.
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 329 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition:
- Second edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Columbia University Press, [2002]
- Summary:
- There is a growing realization that many of the problems afflicting American elections can be traced to the electoral system itself, in particular to our winner-take-all approach to electing officials. Douglas Amy demonstrates that switching to proportional representation elections -- the voting system used in most other Western democracies, by which officials are elected in large, multimember districts according to the proportion of the vote won by their parties -- would enliven democratic political debate, increase voter choice and voter turnout, ensure fair representation for third parties and minorities, eliminate wasted votes and "spoliers," and ultimately produce policies that better reflect the public will. Looking beyond new voting machines and other quick fixes for our electoral predicament, this new edition of "Real Choices/New Voices" offers a timely and imaginative way out of the frustrations of our current system of choosing leaders.
- Contents:
- Fair representation for all
- Solving the redistricting problem
- Improving election campaigns
- Toward a multiparty system
- Electing more women
- Fair representation for racial and ethnic minorities
- Encouraging voter turnout
- PR: a different and better kind of democracy
- Objections to proportional representation
- Versions of electoral reform for the United States
- The political prospects for PR in the United States
- Seat allocation formulas in proportional representation
- Vote counting and ballot transfer in the single transferable vote
- The forgotten history of proportional representation in the United States.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-303) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0231125488
- 0231125496
- OCLC:
- 49672395
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