Questions on Electoral Reform
Markus, I think we should be a little more cautious when applauding our "lack of bias":
"Well to weigh in on this, I think we're getting down to a good discrimination. I'm actually in favour of the question Deanie proposed early on in discussion, partly because of its clear wording, and also because of it's nice lack of bias (which is something hard to avoid when you're looking for causal links, I've found.) The question was this: "Which of the following electoral systems do you think is the most fair?" - First Past the Post (FPTP - Current System) - Alternative Vote - Proportional Representation - Single Transferable Vote (STV) - Mixed Member Plurality (MMP) - Don't Know"' I feel this question is pretty loaded.
- Firstly, We obviously bias the results of our poll towards the electoral systems we suggest. What if I think the fairest type of electoral system is a specific type of preferential voting (ranked pairs for example), Party list proportional, a parallel vote etc...? The question will systematically favor the listed responses and at the expense of the multitude of unlisted electoral systems.
-Secondly, we are asking what electoral system is most "fair". Is this to be understood as what electoral system is best? I may think an electoral system is not the most fair, but otherwise desirable for some other attribute. For instance, FPTP might be "unfair" to smaller political parties, but may still be the best electoral system because it creates effective governments by manufacturing majorities. If we assume the best electoral system must be the "fairest" we bias our survey against the other possible merits of electoral systems.
-Thirdly, our selection of answers might effectively "split the vote" of respondents to make an option less popular by splitting its advocates into two smaller subgroups. Consider the respondent to the proposed question who believes STV to be the fairest system because it achieves proportional representation- do they select the "STV" response or the "proportional representation response"?
Some of these criticisms may be beyond the scope of our current poll given the limits we are working under, but I still think we must be aware of these problems to minimize them. The question might be a good one despite the deficiencies I just mentioned, but we must at least be aware of them.