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From: mike@erix.UUCP (Mike Williams)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The sun does shine (really about voter turn out).
Message-ID: <779@erix.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 14:49:45 EST
Article-I.D.: erix.779
Posted: Mon Mar 18 14:49:45 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 00:51:17 EST
References: <678@ihopb.UUCP> <357@talcott.UUCP>
Reply-To: mike@erix.UUCP (Mike Williams)
Organization: L M Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden
Lines: 30
Summary: 

In article <357@talcott.UUCP> gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) writes:
>                                          Although the Soviet people are
>more or less happy, they are not happy about their government.  They have
>grown accustomed to having no control over their government.  They think of
>it as they think of the weather.  The weather may be horrible, but it's not
>something one can change.

Quite right! This behaviour is characteristic of all opressed peoples in
the world. This is why so few people vote in most so called democracies.
(Yes, I know there is a high voter turn out in the USSR, but the elections
there are a farce and I don't suppose it's very healthy not to vote).

In nations where voting is not mandatory, I think the voting statistics
are a fair measure of the nation's political health. For example, if
the unemployed and low payed in Britain had voted against
Thatcher and Co. in the last election, then she might not be there today.
But they didn't vote, they stayed at home. They probably realised that
their lot would not be significantly better under a different government 
and that the electoral system is so perverted that their individual votes
in many cases make no difference.

This situation is common in many countries to which Britain exported it's
electorial system, USA, Canada etc etc. The only way to do anything about it 
is to introduce proper proportional representation. This means that the
number of candidates elected from a particular political party is in direct
proportion to the nuber of votes cast for that perty. There are a large number
of countries in Western Europe (and other parts of the world) where this is 
the case.

--Mike Williams