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by Jon Basil Utley
In The American Conservative, June 6, 2005, pp. 26-27 - Previous Article / Next Article

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26 T h e A m e r i c a n C o n s e r v a t i v e J u n e 6 , 2 0 0 5
Education
MOST DEMOCRACIES in the Third
World have not brought about great
prosperity. Many are corrupt, dysfunctional,
and in disarray, unable to control
crime or perform the most basic functions
of civil society.
As Washington promotes a constitution
for Iraq and Arab rulers are pressed
to reform, we would do well to analyze
why some democracies work so much
better than others.
The rules for economic development
and effective government are proven
and well known; what’s less understood
is why many societies are unable to
adopt them. The failure is often blamed
on their cultures or on corruption, but a
common affliction is their political
structures: nearly all have proportional
representation (PR).
To understand PR, imagine if our Congress
were composed of four parties,
Democrats, Republicans, a traditionalist
Old Right Party, and Greens, each of the
last two with 5 percent of the seats. Also
imagine that each party is run by the old
men who had been around the longest,
perhaps a Senator Byrd for one and Bob
Dole for another. There would be little
new thinking and close political disputes
would often be decided by the
swing votes—the Old Right and Greens.
That system of government, with even
more parties, afflicts most of Eastern
Europe and Latin America. Any political
party that can garner at least 5 percent
of the vote would obtain representation
in Congress.
It gets worse. Each party runs nationwide,
and its candidates are determined
by lists controlled by each party’s machinery
—usually old-timers who are owed
favors and remember grudges. The old
men name themselves to the top of the list
while the younger start at the bottom, if
the bosses approve of them. If the party
then wins 40 seats in Congress, the first 40
names on the list get selected. Old politicians
like this system: they rarely lose
office. Also, reformers—often seen as
troublemakers—can be eliminated by
simply keeping them off, or at the bottom,
of the lists. Corruption is endemic and
protected as voters can’t throw out an
individual representative. As long as their
party gets at least 5 percent of the vote,
the old-timers at the top of the list will
always have seats in Congress and decide
who else gets on the lists. In parliamentary
governments, the winning alliance
then votes for one of their old leaders to
become prime minister.
In the American and English systems,
each legislator represents a distinct geographical
region. He can be voted out in
the next election and new candidates
can challenge a powerful incumbent.
With proportional representation, those
who represent the whole nation or large
parts of it represent everybody and
nobody. They can speak in generalities
and are rarely called to account for specific
votes, policies, or consequences.
Venezuela is a perfect example, all too
typical of Latin America. From the ’70s
to the ’90s, two old men, Carlos Andres
Perez and Rafael Caldera, each won the
presidency twice as voters had no other
choice: in rejecting one, they got the
other. In their desperation to get rid of
PR Problems
Proportional representation corrupts democracy.
By Jon Basil Utley
are being educated to take pride in their
country’s way of life. But it ignores the
effects of therapism.
As long as misguided sensitivities are
allowed to constrain how and what our
children are taught, civic education in
America will fall short of its mission. For
too many young people, the fear of
being judgmental, categorical, and
insensitive is paralyzing and quite literally
demoralizing.
After several decades of therapeutic
relativism, many of our young people
are unable to speak in support of the
moral ideals that have made their way of
life possible. Too many have been rendered
incapable of standing up for the
ideals that ground our constitutional
democracy. Liberty? What of it? Some
may not be sure whether our way of life
is especially worth defending.
There are many who believe that therapism
in the schools is a benign, constructive
influence that comforts children,
calming their fears and enhancing
their feelings of self-acceptance. The evidence,
however, does not bear this out.
On the contrary, the therapeutic regime
pathologizes healthy young people. It
encourages remedial measures for nonexistent
vulnerabilities, wastes students’
time and impedes their academic and
moral development. American students
are, with few exceptions, mentally and
emotionally sound. They are resilient.
They can cope with dodgeball.
Christina Hoff Sommers is the author
of The War Against Boys and Who Stole
Feminism? Sally Satel, M.D., is author
of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness
is Corrupting Medicine.
From the book One Nation Under Therapy:
How the Helping Culture is Eroding
Self-Reliance, available wherever books
are sold. Copyright © 2005 by the
authors. Reprinted with permission
from St. Martin’s Press, LLC.


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