I voted a number of times in South Africa in the aprtheid era including, and especially, the last three or four elections before the fall of apartheid. Even allowing for the fact that only whites had the vote, I was painfully aware that in the last few elections less than 50% of (white) voters were maintaining the apartheid government in power. The reason for this was a gerrymandering of electoral districts that was enabled by a first-past-the-post system of voting. Voting districts with mainly opposition voters, largely in the cities, had electorate numbers close to the upper limit allowed. Those supporting the regime, mainly in rural areas, had fewer voters, close to the lower limits required. The first-past-the-post system ensured we had "stable," majority government elected year after year by a minority of voters. It was no accident, but a very deliberate decision that was made, to conduct the first democratic elections in South Africa using a system of proportional representation.
The big fear that many Canadians have expressed over proportional representation is the "instability" of minority government or, horror of horrors, a "coalition". Quite honestly, I have to ask which is worse, minority or coalition government on the one hand or a democratically unrepresentative, winner takes all, government that often as not results in two parties with not dissimilar vote counts having a vastly different number of seats in parliament as illustrated in Canada by the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party after the last election? Why should somebody whom 63% of voters have voted against be the one to represent them because the vote was split 37-33-17-13? Why should smaller parties be made to feel guilty for "splitting" the vote on the left or on the right? Is this a democracy or isn't it? I am all for the protection of minorities but why do the democratic rights of the 37% trump the democratic rights of the 63%?
In the riding where I live, the outcome of an election, year after year, is a foregone conclusion. Peter Van Loan will return to Parliament as surely as night follows day. Why should I even bother voting? I know my vote won't count for anything other than to put $2 into the Green Party coffers. On the radio this evening I heard a young immigrant Canadian quoted as saying, "Dad, don't vote. A choice between bad and worse is no choice at all."
I honestly and strongly believe that our winner-takes-all style of voting coupled with our reluctance to see the political parties representing "us" trying to find middle ground with "them" is what has us mired in the point-scoring, negative politicking we have witnessed for the last seven years. It is also hugely responsible for people who do not believe that their vote counts for anything staying away from the ballot boxes.
I found the following list of 82 countries currently using some variation of proportional representation.
Here are a few references:
Wikipedia - Proportional representation
Wikipedia - First-past-the-post voting
Or do your own search: proportional representation pros and cons
