Propagation: Seeds & scions (4)

4 ideas sprouting »

1. The electoral system and the overall distribution between communities stay the same, but the districting and the prefixed seat distribution between communities inside those districts, have changed again.

   In general:
   ‘Blacksmiths of Lebanon’ blog

   On the specifics of the Beirut districting:
   an IFES Briefing posted on ‘Now Lebanon’

   Seed planted by Bancki — 29 May 2008 @ 10:23

2. I may be terribly wrong in my previous planting. In the Doha Agreement there is also a clause supporting a change to a parallel system.

   The mentioned Draft Electoral Law confirms the exiting allocation of 128 seats by district and by confession and only ‘takes away’ 51 seats from the existing lower-level districts to bring these together, while still determined by confession, in 6 list-PR- districts.

   The draft law ensures the confessional distribution in the list-PR-system by allocating the seats one by one and, when a ‘confession’ had filled up all its seats, eliminating all other candidates of the same confession.

   Seed planted by Bancki — 30 May 2008 @ 06:43

3. Now I see why you’re so interested! In the report accompanying the draft electoral law, you’re quoted in favor of a parallel system:

   “It is to be noted, in this context, that each of the majoritarian and proportional systems has many advantages. This is also the case of large and small constituencies. Accordingly, the mixed systems – an amalgam of these elements – were called by contemporary political science experts such as Matthew Shugart and Martin Wattenberg “The best of both worlds”.”

   …but without a question mark at the end…

   Seed planted by Bancki — 02 June 2008 @ 04:07

4. Yes, that question mark is important! But much forgotten.

   And, of course, not all MM system are created equal, or appropriate for all contexts. The retention of the set-aside balance of sectarian seats rather distorts the workings of the system.

   I would also back off somewhat from a statement we make in the conclusion to the book that implies that MMM may be better at delivering the “best of both worlds” than MMP. The point–which in any case I think was aimed at a context of less institutionalized party systems–may remain theoretically defensible, but I am increasingly dubious on empirical grounds. It strikes me as an especially unsuitable mix for a rigidly sectarian political system such as Lebanon’s.

   I would certainly advise MMP over MMM, and put the later pretty far down the ranking of normatively desirable electoral systems.

   Seed planted by MSS — 02 June 2008 @ 11:49

RSS feed for comments on this post.

TrackBacks

To graft a scion to this planting, please use the following URL:
http://fruitsandvotes.com/blog/wp-trackback.php?p=1670
(Non-MT bloggers click here to send pings.)

Grafted scions that are not compatible with this planting's stock will die or be pruned out by the Orchardist.

Please note that the name you enter below and the first several words of your comment will appear on the right sidebar of the blog's front page, under "Propagation." New propagators might want to look at the comment policy.

Please do not enter long URLs into the seedbed. Either mark them up using html hyperlinks or convert them to a "tiny URL." Thank you!

Seedbed

The soil is ready for planting: