Monday, July 11, 2022

Elect to Vote

A Response to Eric Grenier’s “Ontario’s election done differently”, 

The Writ,  Published June 29, 2022 

 

https://www.thewrit.ca/p/ontarios-election-done-differently

 

We need to thank Eric Grenier for finding this example of a functioning alternative electoral process for us.  His application of Baden-Wurttemberg’s electoral procedures to Ontario’s most recent electoral processes outcome is enlightening.  

 

There are details which may change our view of the effectiveness of B-W’s electoral processes as applied to Ontario’s case.  The total populations of the two jurisdictions are not especially close, 10.8 million for Baden-Wurttemberg, 14.7 million for Ontario, so then also not hugely different.  Land area and therefore population density are quite different 35,752 sq km for Baden-Wurttemberg and 1,076,395 sq km for Ontario.   Population densities are then 108.08 persons per sq km for Baden-Wurttemberg, 13.66 persons per sq km for Ontario.  These differences have an impact especially during writ periods, when parties are working to get to as many electors’ doors, inboxes, mailboxes, phones etc. as possible.

 

The number of elected representatives for each legislature is 154 for Baden-Wurttemberg and 124 for Ontario.   Thus, while we do not know the number of electors in each jurisdiction, we do know the number of persons per elected representative for each, 70,800 for Baden-Wurttemberg, 118,550 for Ontario.  Again, degrees of density of population makes a difference in the amount of access electors have with their representatives, and representatives with their electors.  Of course the same issue applies for would be representatives as they run for office. 

 

The population and land area characteristics are not easily compared between Baden-Wurttemberg and Ontario.  The vast majority of Ontario electors live in urban settings, some quite large.  Others live in rural settings, some quite remote.  Differences in the amount of impact of geography on electors in various constituencies could then be significant.  Is there enough research into these differences to enable a clear judgement?   

 

The number of seated political parties for Baden-Wurttemberg is five – Greens, CDU, SPD, FDP, AfD – and for Ontario is four – PC, Liberal, NDP, Green - plus an independent member.  Thus, perhaps the political gamut running from left through centre to right might be covered roughly equally in comparing the two jurisdictions.  It might be difficult to know whether policies expressed in similar terms mean similar things to electors in their respective jurisdictions, much more difficult to know how equally that policy coverage is when electors of one jurisdiction see the policies presented in the other jurisdiction.   In other words, it is difficult to know how the political philosophies presented in choices to electors compare between the jurisdictions.  On the other hand, perhaps such a comparison is of limited value for the purposes of this discussion so it can be disregarded. 

 

Moving beyond our fun with numbers, what does that mean for improving the effectiveness of representation of any one elector’s interests in the legislature? 

 

To appreciate effectiveness of policy development and implementation through program development, we might wish to understand the needs presented by the electors, perhaps by understanding the electors.  

 

Abstractions: demographic or other characteristics identifying groups of individual electors

Does each jurisdiction have communities of common interest?  Are those common interests self-defined?   Does a community of interest with a large population across constituencies find representation in the legislative body even where that community of interest is not large enough within any single constituency to enable it to elect representatives to advocate for that interest?

 

How large a role does geography play in those definitions?   The larger the role geography plays, the more important the constituency-based assignment of elected offices is.  Does the reverse also hold, is the commonality of interest among electors driven by location within a constituency’s boundary?  

 

Do those interests require public policy responses?  If so, must those responses to those interests be unique in program design and implementation?  Are these decisions made, or at least approved, by the communities themselves? 

 

Individual Electors: 

Does each individual elector present self-defined interests?  Is there commonality of interests found among individuals?  Do these commonalities appear among individuals throughout the jurisdiction?  Do these commonalities appear among individuals in more than one community?   

 

Electoral Strategies for Parties: 

The purpose of a party to be elected in governance roles is to assure its founding principles are engaged in the development of policies and the programs which realise those policies. How does a party assure itself enough votes to gain position of governing authority?  

 

There are at least two timelines at work here.  The short timeline ends with the next scheduled election.  Gaining governing authority in this timeline enables the party to hold sway and influence throughout the ensuing term of office. The long timeline does not have a definite end, rather it extends throughout the lifetime of the jurisdiction it operates in.  Gaining governing authority is known to not hold sequentially for every term of office throughout that period.  The party therefore tries to hold sway in some terms of office and simply influence policy development and realisation throughout the other terms of office. 

 

These two timelines may require significantly different strategies that will nonetheless be dependent upon each other to achieve success.  

 

In the short timeline, parties will identify prospective supporters and find ways to motivate them to vote for the party’s candidate in that identified elector’s electoral district.  A party may likewise find ways to motivate prospective supporters of other parties to abstain from voting.  The reasoning behind these two combined may be that the candidate might well have only one run at election, so must be elected when the immediate election happens.

 

In the longer term, the party may try to motivate its identified supporters to help build capacity to attract others to the party’s cause.  The party may also reach out to non-supporters, those supporting other parties or those non-aligned with any party, to encourage them to bring their support to the party.  

 

These methods of persuasion may include demonstrating effective governance or pointing out other parties’ ineffective governance. The strongest argument is to illustrate how an elector’s interests were either served well by the party or disserved by the governance delivered by another party.  This would mean that the party went out of its way to truly understand the elector’s needs to enable electors to make meaningful comparisons and contrasts. 

 

Electors and parties must find ways to build confidence that the chosen strategies will result in greater effectiveness of representation of interests of any single elector.  

 

The electoral model for B-W seems to offer the opportunity to blend both geographically defined communities and interests defined communities.  The first-past-the-post members elected are geographically defined.  The other allocated representatives offer the opportunity to represent interests that cross geographical boundaries.  However, Mr. Grenier’s essay does not offer enough information to enable us to make any conclusion about whether those dual roles are delivered in practice.

 

So we are left with the question of whether the Baden-Wurttemberg electoral system provides better inclusivity and other measures of effectiveness than Ontario’s first-past-the-post application to only geographically defined constituencies.   

 

It certainly seems to offer the opportunity for better representation of interests that are not strictly geographically based than the Ontario system.  More work is required to provide the understanding that is required to make that judgement.

 

Lastly, that work with electors would offer an opportunity to have Ontario’s electors engage in a fulsome conversation on the issues, hopefully leading to a deeper appreciation of those issues.  Ontario may then develop its own electoral system that may be some adaptation of Baden-Wurttemberg’s, some completely other system, or decide to carry on with first-past-the-post.  

 

Perhaps the final test of effectiveness of electoral systems is the percentage of voter turnout.  Will the Baden-Wurttemberg model outperform the current Ontario model?   There may be only one way to find out and that would be to implement it, replacing the current model in actual elections.

 

What system do you think will help people elect to vote? 

 

M G Klein 

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Saturday, May 14, 2022

Ukraine and Putin's Murders

 Where Do We Go From Here?


It seems there are two main thrusts that must be carried out in our response to Putin’s proclivity for murder.  

First, as we have seen taking place, Ukrainians and International friends are working hard to make Putin holster his weapon and/or remove his weapon from his grasp.

Second, we must understand how this murderous regime came about and work diligently and effectively to prevent this from happening in our own government.  

For these efforts, I am grateful to be included in all the thinking of the friends who have followed and/or contributed to our email thread.  I wish to also thank those who took the time to study the Putin war and found many relevant and related issues, then passed those studies on to me.  

1. James sent me George Kennan’s long telegram from his Charge d’affaires office for the US State Department embassy in Moscow in 1946 distinguished effective democratic government from ineffective democratic government as the singular means to protect the people of the democracy over the long term, indefinitely, in fact.   This solidly packed document is instrumental in driving us to seek Mr. Kennan’s understanding of the situation he addresses, his reasoning and the philosophical principles he stands on. 


His critical message to his government was that the best defence against authoritarianism is good democratic government that bears witness to the answer to the question, “Whose government is this?”.  The answer is from each and every member of this democratic society - mine, yours, ours.  

2. Duane’s questions, as well as in particular David G’s and David V’s responses, about imposing a no-fly-zone over Ukraine led to more than one email discussion thread about the military, political, international relations strategy, all within a human rights and democratically framed philosophical context, on how to end the war.  These discussions are thorough and heartfelt, truly educational.  

https://theconversation.com/ukraine-nato-and-the-us-aim-to-destroy-the-russian-military-it-looks-as-if-they-may-have-the-means-to-do-it-182255?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%203%202022%20-%202280622674&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%203%202022%20-%202280622674+CID_c0a7bed190520c2ce607ac09ced47684&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Ukraine%20Nato%20and%20the%20US%20aim%20to%20destroy%20the%20Russian%20military%20%20it%20looks%20as%20if%20they%20may%20have%20the%20means%20to%20do%20it 

What can be the end game for NATO in stopping Putin's invasion of Ukraine?  What must be the end game for NATO in stopping Putin’s invasion of Ukraine?   

3. Democratic processes must be well anchored in principles arising from democratic political philosophy.


As we have witnessed in Alberta, Canada and the United States, democratic processes can be thwarted to disable even the most basic article of democracy, the vote. 

4. Establishing an effective philosophical framework for structure of government and all its processes is a necessity for the survival of any state. 


How a state can implode - effective governance matters to any state’s survival.

5. Again, we address the discussion of political and military strategy for ending Putin’s war and enlarge it by addressing the existential threat posed for all life on earth, not simply limiting territorial aggression in pursuit of self aggrandisement, in this instance, Putin’s self aggrandisement. 


Military balancing acts must be carefully thought through, addressed and followed up on, all while understanding and responding to the implementation of political and military strategies playing out on the ground. 

6. We have discussed the character of Putin in our discussions.  This piece helps us with that understanding, at least in the narrow context of his murderous bent. 


Studying the political development of the person who likes to have the fastest gun in the shootout when that person is armed with a comprehensive and complete military complex - murder at scale. 

7. Jerry forwarded a fascinating study of the Russian psyche within the context of its relatively recent history, the last one-hundred twenty years or so.  The file Jerry found for my edification is an audio-file some thirty hours in length.  This incredible work contains first person interviews of Russians from across the great breadth and depth of that country with their views on life experienced generally and living with various iterations of government through that period.  The statements have been translated into English with, I believe eight different voices reading every interview with intonation.  I have only worked through the first three of eighteen sections, which took about five hours of fascinating listening.  This report has been transcribed, I believe, but I am not certain that the transcription is in word-for-word agreement with the audio-file.  In any case, the voices add strength to the messages of these individuals’ statements.  Anyone wishing to understand the thinking, emotions, relationships of the Russian people, this is a place to start.  


We look to understand the Russian psyche that Putin is exploiting for his murderous exercise. 

8. Propaganda, what is it?  How does it work? 


Lies are the greatest threat to good government. We must understand the machinations of propaganda and propagandists to be able to recognise it when it comes to us and to know how to prevent its spread and its destructive force. 

9. We have recent experience with propaganda at work as it interferes with our peace and order, deliberate misinterpretations of what personal freedoms are, deliberate misinterpretations of even the roles of government institutions are continuing to run unabated. 


Freedom denied, the transformation of freedom as a basic human right serving as a great good in support of humanity into a great evil in destruction of humanity. 

10. What is it to live with democracy?  What does it mean to participate in democratic governance?  


David H pointed to “Mackenzie King in the Age of Dictators”, Roy MacLaren, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020.  This history of Mackenzie King and his time chronicles, among other things, the difficult relationship governments, particularly in North America and Europe, had with the whole notion of what democracies work like, look like throughout King’s time and beyond.  My view is that it points out, incidental to the history presented within the book, that newly established democratic governments were ill-defined, simply the previous form of governance but with leadership roles elected rather than inherited.  We are still evolving into what a democratically governed society really is. 

11. Peace in society means we collaborate with each other, support each other, protect each other from egregious harm.  We can see it is one thing to “do our own thing”, it is another thing when “doing our own thing” threatens the person of those around us. 


By definition, democracy succeeds effectively one person at a time.  This is an individual’s inhuman experience of the great right of freedom turned into the great evil of freedom. 

12. Conclusion
After studying all this and watching the disgusting actions of Putin with armaments he treats as his own personal weapons, we know that that fire must be put out and we focus our efforts to do that.  Perhaps just as importantly and perhaps with as great a sense of urgency, we must develop our democratic institutions and operations to prevent these kinds of injustices from arising in the first place.

I personally believe we never have established effective foundations of democratic governance to prevent people from feeling left out, alienated from their own society.  We have simply imposed the vote on selection of the modern equivalent of the feudal masters, whatever their modern titles may be, without first empowering ourselves with the critical thinking, lifelong experiential learning that we all require for our personal development and the development of the society we live with. 

I do not thank Putin for incidentally pointing out the urgency with which we must address this issue because to do so would offer some consolation for his murderous bent.  However, I do suggest we use his example to motivate ourselves as we tackle this critical issue now to make certain Ukrainians' sacrifices of their lives in defence of us all never be taken for granted, never be wasted, ever be honoured. 

Mike Klein - May 14, 2022 


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