The fallacy here is that districted voting ends up with two parties. Extreme ones with fptp, mode centrist ones with, say, approval voting.
So first you want some proportional representation.
The second fallacy is that of the informed voter or the informed representative. The core issue we debated in this thread was about that second fallacy. The issue is that "information" is heavily manipulated in a world where anyone can anonymously claim anything. And how do you address that with representative democracy?
> So first you want some proportional representation.
Well, I did say "some sensible voting system", and I think such a system can still be district-based, either using some top-up seats (like in MMP) or (more controversially) assigning different weights to the votes of each representative based on what share their party got of the popular vote.[0]
> The second fallacy is that of ... the informed representative.
If someone has the full time job and the skills (as judged by the public) and the resources to seek out a broad range of opinions (from constituents, other representatives, academics, activists, and civil servants), then they are surely more able than the average citizen (or average dictator) to make a well-informed decision.
We're not expecting perfection, here, just an insulating layer between the manipulated information of the media (including social media) and the decision-making process.
Are they, now? If a politician needs $X,XXX,XXX in bribes to even get out of bed, does that make him better or worse at making decisions than the average man on the street?
I guess the question is, how many voters can you persuade with $X,XXX,XXX in political advertising? But, I suppose, if the politician is being bribed with the offer of having $X,XXX,XXX spent on advertising for their campaign, perhaps there's not much difference.
So first you want some proportional representation.
The second fallacy is that of the informed voter or the informed representative. The core issue we debated in this thread was about that second fallacy. The issue is that "information" is heavily manipulated in a world where anyone can anonymously claim anything. And how do you address that with representative democracy?