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Dear Tom, I'm aware of all this, and it is not my point that Bush did not win the electoral college (though it is very unclear whether he did: NYTimes and Washington Post studies showed that it depended on which votes were counted and a choice was made by the Court); my point was that the European anger at Americans for Bush is not really fair since in fact we did not choose him by a majority. I do not think the parliamentary system is analogous since it builds in plurality decisions. Margaret Thatcher never had a majority. But the US system assumes a majority of the Electoral College and assumes that will also be true of the popular vote--though the possibility of it not doing so is clear. Nancy On 7 Oct 2003, at 13:52, Tom Gray <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > --- Nancy Gish - Women's Studies <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > > > > My only point about Bush is that he was not elected > > by a majority > > vote--a fact. > > In Canada, there have two recent instances of > provincial governments being elected but only getting > a minority in the popular vote. This occurred in eh > election of the Parti Quebecois government in Quebec > and in the election of the NDP government in British > Columbia. > > This can occur in any electoral system which relies on > hierarchical majorities. The government is made up of > the party which can command a majority of seats in the > legislature and seats are given to the party which > obtains the most votes in a riding (constituency). > Usually the government party will receive the most > votes but this is not always the case as the two > recent examples indicate. In the Quebec example, the > Liberal Party vote was concentrated in only a few > regions. They elected members there by wide margins. > The PQ having support over more regions were able to > elect more members with smaller majorities. > > The US presidential system as everyone knows requires > not a majority of the popular vote but a majority of > the states. In this, it is very similar to the British > system used in Canada and elsewhere for selecting > governments. This system has the benefit of balancing > both population and regional requirements in the > selection of executives. > > This type of system has a long history a long history. > In Canada, the two governments elected with a minority > of the popular vote were both social democratic. They > would be the sort of government that Bush supporters > would vote for. There was no great outcry at the time > that these elections were somehow illegitimate. > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search > http://shopping.yahoo.com