We have Majority Rule in the USA and there is Majority Rule in Sweden.
Majority Rule in Sweden contains more voters than Majority Rule in the USA. How is that possible?
- In the USA, we have winner-take-all.
- In Sweden, they have Proportional Voting.
In Proportional Voting, all (or close to all) voters get the representation they hand-selected themselves.
With us, the Majority selects the representative.
Next, the decisions are made by the Majority in Sweden and in the USA. In Sweden that’s 50%. In the USA, that’s 30%.
We have two rounds of Majority Rule and they have just one round of Majority Rule. We have many voters that did not get represented by their votes. Our representatives represent only those voters that picked the winner.
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Let’s find another example to say the same thing.
US Senators are voted in on average with 60% of the votes. That means that 30% of all voters get their Democratic Senators, and 30% of all voters get their Republican Senators. The largest group of voters — 40% — goes home empty-handed.
Hardly anyone goes home empty-handed in Sweden. One has to pick an impossible candidate to not get represented in Sweden.
The distinction is actually very important, vital to understanding why these two democratic societies are so different.
The USA is ruled by 30% of the voters, and it can swing left or right, but the majority does not amount to much more than 30% of the voters. The dial is set in a two-dimensional manner.
Sweden is ruled by 50% of the voters, and it can swing left or right, but it can also move forward and backward, up and down. The dial is set in a three-dimensional manner.
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The Democratic Engine
In the following graph, the democratic ‘engines’ are shown in which all eligible voters are calculated in the graphs. The percentages will therefore differ to some extent because 100% now includes those people as well that did not come out to vote.
The USA to the left, 83.3 percent of all eligible voters need to come out and then the majority wins more than half the seats, voted in by 25% of all eligible voters. That means that for all folks that did vote, about 30% picked the majority seats.
To the right, half the Swedish people have to stay home and not vote and then the majority is based on 25% of all eligible voters. That is 50% of all folks that voted.
In this second view of the democratic ‘engine’ about 40% of the folks decided to not come out to vote in the USA and in Sweden.
In the USA, this translates into a majority that was hand-picked by about 18% of all eligible voters. That group translates into 30% of the voters needed for handing the majority the scepter to rule the nation. As you can see, that 30% number is pretty well set.
In Sweden, 30% of all eligible voters hand-picked the majority. This translates into 50% of the voters. As you can see, that 50% number is pretty well set.
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If you want to change the voting system in the USA, the Founding Fathers provided a pathway in which baby steps can get taken toward Proportional Voting without having to change the US Constitution.
The Local Revolutions grassroots movement is already invoking the US Constitution, demanding cities and counties put the better voting system in place.
Come join. The Founding Fathers are with us.
