I vote for a different voting system | Eli Dourado

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How a small tweak could reduce extremism and end the culture war

Can a change in the voting system save our country? Start with a simple electoral model: two strong, instrumentally rational parties; one dimension of political discourse (a simple left-right axis); and a simple majority voting rule where each voter selects the party closest to his location on the axis. How do the two parties behave? It’s simple, they each adopt a position very close to the view held by the median voter. If one party deviates from the 50th percentile view, it will earn fewer votes than the other one. Suppose one party tries to shade a bit right, running on a platform…

I vote for a different voting system | Eli Dourado

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