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The Case
Against Winner-Take-All
Voting systems are to a democracy
what the "operating system" is to a computer - voting systems are
the software that makes everything else possible. Like a computer's
operating system, a voting system functions silently and largely
invisibly in the background, and yet it has an enormous impact on
the five defining dimnsions of a democratic republic:
representation, participation, political discourse and campaigns,
legislative policy, and national unity.
These five dimensions are like
the sturdy poles of the great tent of the republic, of
representative democracy, holding it aloft. Winner Take All relies
near exclusively on (1) geographic-based representation and/or (2) a
two-choice/two-party political duopoly. From those two defining
characteristics of Winner Take All other dynamics and tensions are
unleashed that impact the five dimensions, often with unintended and
damaging results.
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