Fiji is unusual in that it divides its citizens by race and registers them on separate racial electoral rolls. Each race then elects its own MPs, which gives no electoral incentive for racial compromise and harmony. I have therefore proposed the following alternative system for Fiji, known as Distributed-Approval Proportional Representation, which is designed to encourage each MP and each party to seek the votes of, and respond to, each ethnic group.
The Approval PR aspect of the system works as follows. An elector may vote for more than one candidate, voting either with a double vote ('XX'), for the candidate (s)he or she prefers more highly, or else with a single vote ('X'). Each party gets seats in proportion to the total of double votes which its candidates have received. The party's seats are then given to those of its candidates for whom the largest number of electors have voted, whether with a single or a double vote. Thus in a party which previously got votes only from race A, those of its candidates who get elected as the party's MPs, will be those who are best at getting single votes from the other races B and C.
The Distributed-Vote aspect of the system rewards a party or a candidate for getting an even distribution of votes between the different races. It does this by allocating seats to the party or the candidates, according to their votes in that race in which they have their lowest percentage of votes. Thus the effect of the system as a whole is that in each party, each candidate will be encouraged to become more pan-racial, the more pan-racial candidates will tend to be elected as the party's MPs, and the party as a whole will tend to become more pan-racial, responding in its policy to the needs of each race, and getting votes from each race.
- The Institute for Social Inventions apologises for the extremely long delay in publishing Dr David Chapman's book R-Inventing Democracy (pre-publication price £8-95, libraries, institutions and bookshops £13-95). This has been caused by delay in the delivery of the manuscript from the author. However, all being well, the Institute hopes to be in a position to send this book out in the winter of '95.
- David Chapman, Democracy Design Forum, Coles Centre, Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 3EB (tel 01449 736 223).
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