A good article. Quick and to the point.
There are two versions of democracy. One encourages fighting tremendously, the other encourages collaboration.
Winner-take-all does not only mean that the victor gets all the spoils, but that the other person gets nothing. I would be fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting if that prevented me from getting nothing.
The system of winner-take-all teaches us that negotiations are truly the last option, because if you don't fight-fight-fight you are not even going to be sitting at that table of negotiations.
We do need the table of negotiations. It should not be a battle; but this is were society's present and future is decided. It means an outcome must be forged.
Winner-take-all can also be called the Anglo system because two-party systems are mainly found in nations stemming from colonial times and English hegemony in the world. These Brits fought-fought-fought and even created the worst outcomes in other nations (like Trump encouraging folks to storm the capitol but not participating himself). I do not look kindly on British history because it pulled the worst of the worst out of Europe as a result. Thank god Brexit occurred and perhaps Europeans can become a bit more social-democratic now, like they were before Thatcher took the EEC toward its neo-libertarian free-market path.
Here is a graph showing that systems do matter and that the bottom of society is better off in nations with comprehensive voting systems.
More on that in this article:
https://medium.com/carre4/why-minorities-embrace-winner-take-all-f81b22b7f72
This other form of democracy arrived later, even though Jefferson already proposed it. By voting for a body of representation, but never for the head itself (it appears by itself from the body), groups of representatives are eager to find partners to collaborate and implement their political agendas. See columns #4 and #5 in the graph.
The happiest nations in the world have the single-house proportional voting system. Even the immigrants moving to these nations are the happiest immigrants in the world. That should shut everyone else up.
Happier people means they have to fight less.
No nation in the Americas has the pure form of modern democracy. The struggle must not be hard and deep enough in the Americas, perhaps the colonial mindset is still lingering in people's heads. War-plagued Europe ended up embracing the best form of democracy, even though not all nations have it today; only the smart ones.
If we have to pick either winner-take-all or equal representation, the choice should be easy. Let's pick the system that makes people happier.
Thank you for your article.
