Dear Dr. Pichumany,

I will be happy to post the details of the
Philadelphia Conference on Bill of Voters' Rights
program as soon as it is finalized. Thank you for your
everlasting and enthusiastic interest and support of
PR.

I just noticed a mistake the message I posted. I wrote
that the steering committee of IPPN met in Atlanta on
April 21-23. That was obviously wrong. We met on March
21-23.

Just the other day I heard a nice short poem on the
radio (NPR = National Public Radio). It was entitled
"Bugs in a bowl." I do not recollect the content of
the poem. But the title stuck to my mind because I at
the time I was thinking about PR. And I thought that
those among us who do not take interest in what is
going on in the world around us -- how they form their
government etc., are just like "bugs in a bowl",
unable and unwilling to climb out of the bowl. Their
horizons would really broaden infinitely if they took
interest in, and educate themselves about, how most of
the world elects its own representatives to their
governing bodies. As I have stated before, all of
Western Europe, except for the UK and France, and most
of the rest of democracies, including Japan, South
Africa, New-Zealand, and all of the new democracies
formed from the previous communist regimes use PR to
elect their national and local assemblies.

One of the inherent flaws of the first-past-the-post
(FPTP) of the UK and many of its former colonies use
is that it leads to decimation of parties representing
weaker segments of the society, so much so that they
can't even think of forming a party of their own. In
fact it leads to a two party system. Many call it (its
collapse into a two party system) into maturing of the
democracies based on FPTP, I would call it its decline
into a two party system wherein the two choices are
not much different from each other. Even before the
decline votes for any party other than the two
strongest ones is a waste of votes, which is why the
other parties die off with the passage of time.

In the following, below your letter, I am giving some
links to the sites that discuss electoral systems in
general and PR in particular. I got them more than a
year ago when I searched the web for "Proportional
Representation". I am also going to upload these
cite-addresses at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PR-forum/files/

Regards,
Satinath

--- Raman Pichumani <pichu@...> wrote:
> Congrats to you, young Satijee, on your active
> involvement in PR! I would like to attend the June
> meet in Philly,
> if at all possible.
>
> W/best wishes.
> RP
>

The following are a few PR electoral systems. Using
the Search Engines called “Excite”, one can find tons
of sites advocating PR system of Elections:
http://www.igc.org/cvd/ Center for Voting and
Democracy
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm
PR Library – passed by Niranjan
http://www.sdgreens.org/library/platform/planks/4democracy/04.html
Green party of San Diego for PR
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prbibht2.htm#criticisms
Proportional Representation Bibliography
http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~lee/prsa/ Proportional
Representation Society of Australia
http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~lee/prsa/qn/ Quota Notes
http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/aa.html The Affirmative
Action and Diversity Project: A Web Page for Research
http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/pages/quotas.html Quotas
and Proportional Representation
http://worldpolicy.org/americas/prindex.html
Democracy: Electoral Systems
http://www.igc.apc.org/enVISION/rep.html
Representation Democracy
http://fairvote.net/washington/ Washington State
Citizens for Proportional Representation represents
http://www.prairienet.org/icpr/ Party Planned to
Celebrate Cumulative Voting
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/Cambridge/prop-voting/PR.html
City of Cambridge, Mass, for PR

http://www.greenparty.on.ca/info/proprep/prpetit.htm
The Green Party Petition for Proportional
Representation
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbailie/C4PR/ Canadians for
Proportional Representation
http://www.afsc.org/greatlak.htm The Great Lakes
Region works for social and economic justice
http://www.greenparty.on.ca/ Green party of Ontario
http://www.cedemocracy.org/mingen.html The Center for
the Evolution of Democracy
http://www.e-democracy.org/mn-politics-archive/9702/0306.html
Why proportional representation is wrong, IMO – A
linked letter
http://www.e-democracy.org/mn-politics-archive/9511/0006.html
Dave Thune Lit Drop
http://www2.bitstream.net/~gabeo/fvhome.html Fair
vote Minnesota
http://www.dsausa.org/rl/Dems/proprep.html McKinney
to Introduce Proportional Representation Legislation
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4415/prorep.htm
PR one person, one vote that counts
http://world.std.com/~jberg/reform.html John Berg's
Book Reviews
http://www.teleport.com/~dweezil/offer.htm
Proportional Representation: Bringing Democracy to
Oregon
http://ausarts.anu.edu.au/pad/releases99/Senate.html
The Senate under the spotlight at ANU Conference
http://www.igc.apc.org/enVISION/ Where there is no
vision ...
http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Politics/McLean/black.html
Towards a Mathematical Theory of Proportional
Representation: Duncan Black on Lewis Carroll.
http://www.indiana.edu/~playpol/home.html Burt L.
Monroe, Assistant Professor, Department of Political
Science, Indiana University
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/pamph.htm
Proportional Representation: The Case
for a Better Election System.
http://www.emfnet.com/~cheetham/gnooon-1.html
Northern California Citizens for Proportional
Representation (CPR)
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/03/02/f-p11s1.shtml
When a majority of a majority is a minority
Rob Richie and Steven Hill (FairVote@...)
http://pw1.netcom.com/~res95/home.html Roy Smith's
Homepage
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/Cambridge/prop-voting/prop-voting.html
Proportional Voting in Cambridge
http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/es/es/default.htm
Electoral Systems Index
http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/pi/pid03/default.htm
Links to Other Sites - 3
http://www.aec.gov.au/pubs/electoral_systems.htm
Australian Election Commission
http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/people/pnorris/reform.htm
Choosing Electoral Systems: Proportional, Majoritarian
and Mixed Systems --Pippa Norris at Harvard
http://www.umich.edu/~nes/cses/cses.htm The
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
http://www.ecco.bc.ca/survey.htm ELECTORAL SYSTEMS –
Electoral Change Coalition of British Columbia
http://edsitewa.iinet.net.au/eec.html Electoral
Education Centre
http://www.psci.unt.edu/es/ Electoral Studies An
International Journal on Voting and Electoral Systems
and Strategy
http://www.idea.int/publications/system-design.html
The International IDEA Handbook of Electoral System
Design
http://www.georgetown.edu/LatAmerPolitical/Elecdata/systems.html
Overview of Latin American Electoral Systems
http://www.cous.uvic.ca/poli/ruff/courses/333/
University of Victoria Faculty of Social Sciences
http://www.SecurePoll.com/ he most comprehensive
collection of Internet voting information on the Web
http://www.ifes.org/ International Foundation for
Election Systems (IFES)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timb/ UK
Elect
http://www.klipsan.com/elecnews.htm Election Notes
http://www.agora.stm.it/elections/ Wilfried Derksen's
Elections around the world
http://www.leinsdorf.com/ Institute of Election
Analysis The Voters' Voice Josh Leinsdorf, Chief
Psephologist
http://dodgson.ucsd.edu/lij/ The Lijphart Elections
Archive, housed at the University of California, San
Diego campus
http://www.ifes.am/ International Foundation for
Election Systems Yerevan, Armenia

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/election.htm Elections and
Electoral systems Around the World
http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/psr.htm Political Science
Resource (Very extensive – Info on many nations)
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/government/approvalvote/altvote.html
Alternative voting systems
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/government/approvalvote/goodsoc.html
Approval Voting and the Good Society -- Steven J.
Brams
http://www.laws.qmw.ac.uk/election/home.html British
Elections and Politics Home Page
http://www.agora.stm.it/politic/ Political Resources
on the Net
http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba/ Political Database of
the Americas
http://www.lafayette.edu/publius/ The Journal of
Federalism
http://www.vote.org/v/ Government by the People, a
Nonprofit Corporation.
http://houstonprogressive.org/prop-rep.html
Proportional What?
http://www.lbbs.org/zmag/articles/mar95hill.htm
Proportional Representation By Steven Hill (Z
Magazine)
http://www.charter88.org.uk/home.html Charter88
Employment and Volunteer Opportunities
http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/copyrght.htm
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance (International IDEA)
http://fairvotencal.org/ Northern California Citizens
for Proportional Representation
http://www2.links2go.com/more/fairvotencal.org/ Nccpr
Links
http://beacon.org/Beacon/sp99cat/richie.html
REFLECTING ALL OF US The Case for Proportional
Representation Foreword by Lani Guinier
http://www.beacon.org/ndf/ New Democracy Forum
http://www-polisci.mit.edu/BostonReview/BR23.1/prglossary.html
A PR Glossary (Boston Review)
http://www.ci.kalamazoo.mi.us/government/pro.htm
Election Methods Proportional Representation -
Preference Voting (At-Large)
http://www.jerel.com/ Jerel Software produces
PRMaster, the pre-eminent Choice Voting software in
the United States, and perhaps in the world.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbailie/C4PR/intro.html
Canadians for Proportional Representation What is
Proportional Representation? How does it work?
http://shell9.ba.best.com/~bovik/index.html
http://www.e-thepeople.com/affiliates/national/index.cfm
E The People
http://www.ballot-access.org/1997/voterschoice.html
Voters' Choice Act of 1997 -- USA
http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/~Election/adoption.html
Adoption Of Plan E
http://web.power.by.net/loringrbt/a_intro.htm Accurate
Democracy
http://arizonatimes.com/index.html Fair Districts =
Fair Elections (ArizonaTimes.com)
http://www.hankookilbo.co.kr/14_1/199910/t4151257.htm
Progressive DLP May Win 24 House Seats Under New
Proportional Representation System
http://www.fairvote.org/reports/1995/chp1/cullen.html
Shaking Up Congress in Texas A PR Plan to Provide Fair
Representation
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/vote/listPR.html The
case against First Past the Post
http://www.ups.edu/faculty/share/links/General.htm
COMPARATIVE POLITICS LINKS
http://web.mit.edu/watko/www/pr.html A Brief
Explanation of Proportional Representation in
Cambridge, MA
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~basils/welcome.htm Real
Democracy – Decisions by Secret Ballot
http://website.lineone.net/~richard.lung/ Democracy
Science
http://www.afd-online.org/ Alliance for Democracy (has
list-serves)
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/bookhtml.htm#beginning
REAL CHOICES/NEW VOICES The Case for Proportional
Representation Elections in the U. S.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/howprwor.htm
How Proportional Representation Elections Work
http://www.mri.gouv.qc.ca/salle_des_nouvelles/tire_presse_98/quebec60_an.html
Electoral reform, one small step at a time by Donald
Charrette Editorial
http://www.int-idea.se/publications/es-graphics.html
Graphics - Electoral System Design
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cmdixon/home.html Say no to
proportional representation or its variations
http://www2.links2go.com/more/fairvotencal.org/ Nccpr
Links
http://cgi.canoe.ca/PastHeadlines/may5_green.html
Green party seeks electoral system change
http://munkora.cs.mu.oz.au/~lee/prsa/women.html
"Quotas" not the solution, says electoral reform group
http://jcp.cab.infoweb.ne.jp/English/e-98sanin-0714-2.html
JCP Wins Highest Number of Seats Ever in the House of
Councilors Election
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D1869401808/newzealandelectiA/102-420351\
0-4509604
Voters' Victory? : New Zealand's First Election Under
Proportional Representation
http://acqs.plattsburgh.edu/cannews/gaz120998b.htm
Counting the votes DON MACPHERSON The Gazette
http://www.agora.stm.it/elections/election/hungary.htm
Elections in Hungary
http://www.gksoft.com/govt/ Governments on the WWW,
They have links to this website...
http://www.mich.com/~donald/support-3.html Elections
using Ranked Choices
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/menu-e.asp Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/pegs.htm
Proportional Representation: Empowering Minorities or
Promoting Balkanization?
http://www.life.ca/nl/56/politics.html Grassroots
Politics Participatory Democracy and Bioregional
Self-Reliance Proportional Representation
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/mill/bio_mill.html
Mill, John Stuart
http://www.weeklywire.com/alibi/10-08-97/ncity.htm
John Anderson Advocates Voting Reform
http://www.reform.ca/white-t/jan2297.html ted white,
New Zealand

http://democracyscience.findhere.com/ A great site
What is uk.politics.electoral Joe Otten
joe.otten@xxxxxx.xxxx on
http://onelist.com/message/UKelectoralreform/29



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