POLITICS - 'Monopoly Capitalism' vs Proportional Representation

An old but very good idea for governance.  Of course, in the U.S. this would be very, very hard to change our current system since it would require a Constitutional Amendment.

Since our political parties are in control of Congress they will not want to give up their strangle hold on the political system.  This goes double for the big-money that buys votes.

Our present system means that voters who do not believe or belong to the winning party have to be represented by a party they did NOT vote for.

Usenet Post in alt.politics.usa, from Marcus Aurelius

The voting turn out in both the USA and Canada is extremely low.

Both nations have the "winner take all", "gerrymandered", and "bought" form of electoral representation which, in effect, politically disenfranchises the majority of the electorate while concentrating both political and economic power in a few individuals and entities (Monopoly Capitalism).

The politicians in both nations are extremely happy with the low voter turn out and the lack of efficacious political representation as the same further entrenches the political establishments supporting the two party systems and the special interests which they represent.

Of course, both in the USA and Canada, for the aforementioned reasons the electorates should organize and demand a change the current electoral system to some form of "proportional representation" so as to provide true electoral representation for the electorates of both nations.

Proportional Representation

Excerpt

Proportional representation (PR) is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council.  PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received.  For example, under a PR voting system, if 30% of voters support a particular party then roughly 30% of seats will be won by that party.  PR is an alternative to voting systems based on single-member districts or on bloc voting; these non-PR systems tend to produce disproportionate outcomes and to have a bias in favor of larger political groups.  PR systems tend to produce a proliferation of political parties. There are many different forms of proportional representation.  Some are focused solely on achieving the proportional representation of different political parties (such as list PR) while others permit the voter to choose between individual candidates (such as STV-PR).  The degree of proportionality also varies; it is determined by factors such as the precise formula used to allocate seats, the number of seats in each constituency or in the elected body as a whole, and the level of any minimum threshold for election.