Lib Dem bar-charts explained - Happy Birthday M. Duverger!

[matgb]

Those of you that read either Not Little England or voting_taktix will recall that I mentioned Maurice Duverger a few times, and I also referred to him in my I should write about politics more post in, um, February. He is, undoubtedly

one of the more famous political scientists of the twentieth century, and pretty much the founding father of modern electoral systems study

And to commemorate his birthday, baseballchica03 explains why. Go read and discuss a bit, definitely something worth understanding more about, especially if you're involved in electoral politics on either side of the pond.

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I thought he was dead.

[matgb]

So did I, never occured to me he might not be given he became prominent during the 4th Republic. A bit of a git though, but his analysis was sound. Conclusions utterly wrong, but there y'go.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Ha! You want to read some law text books.

"Prison has never worked as a deterrent, but proper rehabilitation's too expensive, so all we need to do is make the prison regime as harsh as possible..."

And don't get me STARTED on HLA Hart. The man had some sound ideas, but Jesus, he could put YOU to sleep within a page, Mr Insomnia.

[matgb]

You want to read some law text books.

I'll, um, pas, thanks.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Actually, you DO want to read some of Mike Fientuck's stuff (he was the lecturer I told you about who used to share fags with me). His two specialisms are local government and Media regulation, and his stuff on the media is something any modern politician needs to know to be able to manipulate them properly

[matgb]

Ah, fair enough; have to make time for that at some point. Between other things. Maybe.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, at some stage I'm going to run out of DVDs that we want to watch in bed, and it's better than me reading you Harry Potter...

* runs and hides from faeriecween *

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Hehe, so did I, until I pulled up the wiki page to link people.

[fracindy.livejournal.com]

*waves icon in SB's face*

[matgb]

*cough*

What we actually have here is an example of French genius. He wrote one of the best researched, best written critiques of the UK/US electoral system, and exposed its essentially undemocratic, choice denying nature.

Then he suggested France adopt it.

Hence you have that daft run off system where you end of with two bad choices for every position ;-)

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

especially if you're involved in electoral politics on either side of the pond.

Ha! I live at the bottom of the pond and we've already switched to MMP! Much more fun...