In the USA : The Electoral College

There are good historic reasons why the USA chose an electoral College system to elect their president - They didn’t want the interests of less populated states to be ignored.

But as the video posted here shows, that’s not the effect the college has these days. What actually happens is the result is only decided by a small number of states, and they tend to be middling to large states on population.

These pages are mostly concerned with the UK, but a look at the USA system - which is a kind of FPTP on acid - you can see some of the problems that effect the UK. Specifically, the final result is determined by voters in Swing States - read, Marginal Constituencies - and by the swing voters in those states.

Swing State Swing voters may not be typical of the whole population - but they are the people to whom candidates will bend their policies.

When it comes to constructing policy platforms a lot of people are ignored. That’s not fair, of course - and I say elsewhere its fairness to voters, the people, that concerns me more than fairness to Parties (though the two are not unconnected)

But more than lack of fairness, this has a longer term and more serious consequence - people get frustrated and frustrated people look for alternatives.

It’s said that a PR system will help extremist groups get a foothold in parliament. That’s not so true of STV (as I’ll cover elsewhere). FPTP, in its British and American forms, builds disillusionment, which can lead to support of extremism

There’ll be more discussion pieces to come

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