The United Peoples Of Earth

A direct democracy is difficult to manage on a local level, let alone a national level. It is because of this that representative democracy must be used. The question then becomes what form of representative democracy is the most democratic? How could such a thing be measured? Some say the more elections you have the more democratic you are. Others say the more political parties you have the more democratic you are. Let us consider instead, the percent of the population represented after an election. For the purposes of the examples only the voting populace is taken into account, as the people who have the opportunity to vote yet don’t, forfeit their representation.

In the United States the senators and congressmen are directly elected. Traditionally it is a two-party system. Therefore the minimal percent of votes required to win is greater than 50, which means the number of people who vote but are not represented is just under 50%. In reality these minimal numbers don’t happen that often, yet these minimal numbers aren’t even the lowest possible. With the inclusion of additional parties the candidate needs only the plurality of the vote in order to win. This is known as “The first past the post” style of election.

During the 2008 United States Senate Election in Minnesota, there was a heated series of court cases between candidate Al Franken and incumbent candidate Norm Coleman. In the end Al Franken was declared the winner by 215 votes. What makes this case so interesting is not that the fact that Franken won the seat by court decision, or that it was so close that just under half of the voting population wasn’t represented. What makes this case so interesting is that the majority were not represented. Al Franken and Norm Coleman got only ~42% of the vote each. Third party candidate Dean Barkley got ~15% of the vote, which means that ~59% of Minnesota voters were not represented in the election.

The President of the United States is elected via the Electoral College. As of the 2000 Census there were 538 total Electoral College votes, meaning 270 are needed to win. Since Electoral College votes are distributed by state population, in a best (or worst) case scenario, a candidate only needs to win California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, and New Jersey to win the presidential election. Also take into consideration that in order to win a state the candidate just needs a plurality of the vote. The combined populations of the above 11 states are ~171,000,000. Assuming that voter turnout is 100% and only two candidates are running in each state, of the 11 states a candidate needs only ~85,000,000 votes in order to secure the presidency. Using the 2000 census, ~30% of the people are represented. A situation where a candidate loses the popular vote but wins the presidency does not occur often, but it is not unheard of. In fact this situation has occurred four times in U.S. history; in 1824, 1876, 1888, and most recently in 2000.

During the 2000 presidential election former Vice President Al Gore received 543,895 more votes in the popular count than former Texas Governor George W. Bush, but lost the Electoral College by 5 votes. Also like the legislature, these aren’t truly the lowest votes a candidate needs in order to win an election. The inclusion of third party candidates makes it lower.

The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are selected by the President and therefore 0% of the people are represented. However it should be noted that the justices are non-partisan. At this point some may be shocked by the numbers. Others may be saying that the numbers are so extreme that they skew realistic election results. In fact these numbers are unrealistic, but are theoretical possibilities. Keep in mind that the proposed form of government will be put under the same scrutiny.

“Every five years from the ratification of this constitution, there shall be an election on the first Tuesday in February. The population shall vote for the party they think would best run the government. The seats awarded to each party shall be proportional to the population that voted for that party. Seats where several parties have a partial claim, shall be awarded to the parties with the greatest partial claim.

The party’s leadership shall fill the position with the candidates they think are best. On the first Tuesday in November of the same year, an election will be held to determine how much weight the vote of a member will count. The weight will be equal to the number of people who voted for them.

A person shall be able to cast one vote per council per election.” – Article IV

The Government of The United Peoples of Earth has a theoretical minimum representation of 100%. Some may say this is impossible. However this can be accomplished by reworking the structure of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. The restructuring will be discussed in greater detail later, however for the time being, keep in mind that there are multiple Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and Congressmen. Let them be known as Executive Council Members, Judicial Council Members, and Legislative Council Members, respectively. Also keep in mind that the number of council members will be based on total population.

There are two election rounds. During the first election round, the people will vote for the party they think should win seats based on their issue positions. They may vote for only one party per council. The results of the election will be used to divide the seats proportionally. Unless the vote count comes out perfect, multiple parties will have partial claim to multiple seats. These contested seats will be awarded to the parties with the greatest partial claim. In this particular round representation will be less than 100% due to the fact that some smaller parties might not get enough votes to secure a single seat, and parties with a small partial claim would not have all their voters represented. However these issues are corrected in the second round of elections.

In the mean time, the parties will need to select people to fill the seats. The party may fill the seats in any way they see fit. Ideally they should fill the seats through a democratic process, but do not have to, despite the fact that the party risks the loss of votes should they use non-democratic methods. Once the seats have been distributed and filled, the power of their fillers must be determined.

During the second round of elections each person shall cast their vote for a member on each council. The final weight of a council member’s vote is equal to the number of votes received in the second round, in that each vote represents power conferred upon the council member. Since the voters’ selected council member will hold a seat and have a vote, representation is 100%. The first election may be thought of as a vote of ideology, where the people will vote for the party that aligns most with their way of thinking, and the second election as a vote of competence where the voter will select the council member they feel to be the most qualified to do the job.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 3:04 pm by Joseph Sileo and is filed under TUPOE Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.