The Will of the People does not exist. It is the abominable snowman of politics

22 May 2010

Matthew Parris offers Another Voice

(8) Imagine three possible voting systems, put in a referendum: (a) Status Quo; (b) Alternative Vote; and (c) Proportional Representation. And say none of these three obtains an absolute majority. There will then be an absolute majority against any one of the three. So what’s the WOTP?

Taken literally and mathematically, the WOTP only ever exists when the people are virtually unanimous. Yet any historian will protest — and I concede — that there is such a thing as zeitgeist. A very strong popular demand for or against something (or someone) can sometimes be felt in the very wind. Unfortunately for WOTPists, however, this cannot be calculated mathematically. It is the strength of popular surges, at least as much as the numbers, that makes currents of opinion what they are, and I doubt there was ever a numerical majority for the French Revolution. Two votes, one cast by a voter who’s all but undecided, and the other by a voter who’s passionately engaged, carry the same weight — but is it the WOTP that intensity as well as numbers should be taken into account when calculating the WOTP?

You tell me. Or join me in taking a machete to this maze, and confront what, once confronted, is the obvious: that different voters want different things with differing degrees of intensity; some can be reconciled; some are susceptible to compromise; some involve the complete overruling of a minority. Turning this subtle miscellany into structures of government that are to some degree responsive to the electorate yet capable of producing a decisive government (and even, where necessary, a temporarily unpopular government) requires us all to come down from our high horses of democratic absolutism.

It’s a mess. There are no absolutes. This is the beginning of constitutional wisdom.

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Tim Hedges

May 24th, 2010 3:52pm Report this comment

I think one thing can be said: that the policies of a prospective government should be on show before we vote. On the continent (PR) there are lots of little parties and after the vote they get together, rather like what we have now.

Usually in Britain it is the parties that are the coalition, esch having a left & right, authoritarian & libertarian. At least, though, we get to see the nature and policies of the coalition before we vote.

Whatever the WOTP may or may not be, the will of the political class is something different.

TGF UKIP

May 25th, 2010 5:50pm Report this comment

Wouldn't matter if WOTP did have an existence capable of voice, the London village establishment, of which Matthew Parris is very much part, would simply ignore it. If it ain't green, politically correct and social democrat it would be simply dismissed as the ignorant ravings of the provincial little people.

We really do need a new non-London political party.

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