Chang Noi - Great Article

[Flashermac]

I always thought the old House of Lords was a good idea. Since their power had been reduced to simply delaying legislation, Lords acted as a body that could cause the MPs to reconsider their actions.

 

The US Senate originally was not popularly elected. Senators were chosen by each state's own legislature. Thus educated and intelligent men were often appointed instead of mere political demogogues.

 

 

[Gadfly]

Since their power had been reduced to simply delaying legislation, Lords acted as a body that could cause the MPs to reconsider their actions.

 

The goverment that governs least, governs best. - T Jefferson.

 

There certainly are exceptions, but it is not a bad maxim, particularly in a culture and country where the rule of law runs very thin.

[shygye]

That is why the USA has an Electoral College!

[Gadfly]

I think the "Electoral College" exists because of issues relating to state's rights and arguments about federalism. And that is only relevant to elections for the chief executive, the President. It does not apply to the legislature, the body that creates new laws. Here, 70% of the legislature would be selected by non-democratic means.

 

In the US, I believe (and correct me if I am wrong, but I know the number is very low) there have been, what, three or four elections where the results of the popular vote were not the same as the results of the electoral vote. And even then the difference was only several percentage points. Here, the difference would 70 percentage points.

 

The proposal here, which is being taken seriously by its proponents, is is that only 30 % of the legislature is elected, and someone else or some other group - and no one is saying who (but I guess it's the people that lead PAD, like Sondhi and his cohorts) - pick the other 70% of the legislators and run things.

 

I think PAD's agenda will eventually sink in, and when it does, I think there will be fierce opposition. Not only from the more educated who, as a matter of principle, value democracy, but the people who would, in effect, be disenfranchised.

 

If PAD tries to seriously push this forward, its going to get messy. It may take awhile for this part of the agenda to get highlighted, but people here aren't stupid.

[Mekong]

And here was I thinking Chang Noi was Scott's band

[shygye]

The Electoral College the delegates are NOT REQUIRED to vote for a particular candidate.

[CTO]

Depends on state - I found this topic interesting as a Aussie where it's all a little odd.

 

SO I did some research - some states can do what they like - others have rules about who they have to vote for - many states have different rules even - each electoral college isn;t the sae

 

FARK