EP 571 Is Proportional Representation The Answer to Our Gridlock?

In the United States we are used to single-member districts for our House of Representatives. These are winner take all style elections. This approach seems so natural to us. You lose by one vote and you’re gone. A proportional representative approach, which is practiced in most democracies, involves larger multi-member districts and a division of seats by the percentage of the votes. If there are 100 votes cast and one party gets 60 of them, they get three fifths of the seats. This method may unlock the two party doom loop which has made American democracy so divided and ossified. Nothing gets done. With more parties and more shades of representation it is less us versus them and requires that parties come more to the middle to do the people’s business. Will it ever happen in America? Yes if fixourhouse.org is successful in its efforts. You probably haven’t heard much yet about this movement, but it is an interesting alternative to business as usual. Eli Zupnick, the group’s founder, joins us to explain.

 

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