Stats for nerds
5recommend
9mentions
5people
2021–2025years
78% recommend22% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > as the electorate has already shown they don't care enough to vote their representatives out for doing it
The problem arises from how we run elections. It's very hard to dislodge an incumbent when the small group of people voting in a primary are very biased, and then the people voting in the general election really don't want the candidate from the other party.
I suggest reading "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America" by Lee Drutman.
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Two-Party-Doom-Loop-Multipar...
- We still need elections: There are policy decisions that really need to follow popular support; and there are situations where the general public needs to be able to overrule the legislature. (For example, marijuana legalization in Massachusetts was by a ballot initiative.)
That being said:
1: I think some aspect of randomly choosing legislative bodies helps avoid leaders who are power-seeking.
2: I think "Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop" speaks a lot more about how to fix the issues with elections. https://leedrutman.org/breaking-the-two-party-doom-loop
- There was a good (ish) book about this, called Breaking the two-party doom loop.
* There's been an increased focus on federal (vs local) governing. People "over there" now need to adopt the solutions we have "over here". Since federal gov cannot possibly be in tune to all voters micro-needs, a successful federal-first party needs to focus on high-profile outrage-fueled issues.
* The main focus is on proportional representation, where votes for legislators are in proportion to the people who they represent. This avoids winner-take-all elections at congressional level, and removes the need to both pander to moral outrage and gerrymander.
* Another huge factor is increasing the number of seats elected, and pinning it to # of people they represent. This allows minority groups to have their say in congress, rather than having to jump on the bandwagon of "least evil" candidate. Congress has not expanded in a long time.
- Yes. And to paraphrase Lee Drutman's take in Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: far-right parties in the EU tend to get about 10% of the vote. And in a way that's bad (they get seats in parliament!). But in another way, it's good: they can't claim to be "the voice of the masses" when only 1 in 10 people votes for them.
- So far my favorite books of 2022 are:
Political
-----------
Why We're Polarized
Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
I liked these two books together because they are two sides to the same coin and offers something I feel a lot of political books don't, a hope for a better America. Both books offer perspectives on this history of the political parties and how we have gotten to this point.
World
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How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
Vaclav Smil is an amazing author, his latest book really covers a range of topics from energy to food and how solving these problems are not as simple as people think. If you like these types of books, his other book (more dense) Energy and Civilization: A History is something I would highly recommend.
Leadership
----------
To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Leadership has been a big topic for me recently to explore and out of the books I have read these three have opened my mind. I was in the Navy for severals years and so To Risk It All and Extreme Ownership really resonated with me. Execution is a great book as well and the three of them really cover the core of leadership, making hard choices, ownership, and execution based in reality.
Some of these books are new and a few of them are older, but these and several others are books I have read this year and have found them very enjoyable. I will also put out there if you like business an honorable mention of "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't" which also was a pretty good read about how some businesses have done well and beaten the market while other industry giants have not.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52098718-why-we-re-polar...
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/44244963-breaking-the...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56587388-how-the-world-r...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31850765-energy-and-civi...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58885774-to-risk-it-all
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848190-extreme-ownersh...
- I’m desperately interested but highly skeptical. A genuine center party would help, but there are many structural reasons why it’s not likely, and those would have to be addressed. There’s a great book about this titled “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop.” I highly recommend it.
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