advantages of a mixed-member legislature

Well, one of winter break's many advantages is time to write.  I thought I'd take a moment to be weird and talk about how awesome a mixed-member proportional legislature is- this is the system used to determine representation in the German Bundestag.  Generally, it unfolds as follows-
some the legislature's members are chosen through first-past the post district plurality voting, as all are in the U.S. and U.K.  While this has many problems- i.e., it is winner-take all and discourages all but the most mainstream of opinions from being voiced- it does have the compelling advantage of ensuring that every citizen has an elected official personally answerable to their district's voters, ensuring a source of support for dealing with problems relating to government, on everything from pension checks to federal grants.  But the majority- here's where it gets interesting- are chosen by party.
     Each citizen gets two votes for the Bundestag- one for their own representative, and one for a party at the federal level.  The parliamentary seats are assigned on a proportional basis deriving from these votes.  Each party publishes a list of nominees in preferential order, and they fill out their share of the legislature accordingly.  Candidates who win districts outright are bumped to the top of their party's list.  Should a party win more districts than it is entitled to, more seats are added.  At present, I believe the threshold for representation is 5% of the national vote.  This ensures that moderate-to minor sized parties also get representation, and gives national attention to multiple viewpoints.  At present, there are five parties in the Bundestag, and two others are near the threshold for representation.  Now, more parties is not necessarily good- see Israel for a compelling indictment of extremely multi-party parliaments, with some forty parties represented in the Knesset, but I think it would be a good idea here- here is my estimation of what would be best here-

Republican Party- the Republican Party operates as a coalition between business interests/libertarians, hard-core war hawks and religious/racist fundamentalists, most of whom agree on basic issues, but have differing priorities when it comes to implementation.  While the Republican Party is masterful at delivering national support for all these disparate groups, there is some tension at times- the Christians involved in the Dominionist movement have been working to bridge this gap.  And for all those libertarians I know who claim that their brand of anarchy has nothing to do with religious hatred or mistrust of minorities, a MMP system would give them the chance to act as secular champions of feudalism, rather than as appendages of religious or (as they like to pretend) corporate authority.

Democratic Party- Democrats generally seem more compatibly aligned in term of goals, but far less compatible in terms of magnitude.  I think it's fair to say that aside from blue dog dinos, most supporters of the Democratic Party are at least somewhat in favor of regulation of business interests, a healthy welfare state, equal rights under the law regardless of identity, a less confrontational foreign policy, and some environmental protection.  There are some, like myself, who feel that class conflict is a fundamental part of American life and are therefore Socialists, some, like the president, who compromise on most of these basic goals for short term expediency, and many who are somewhere between those two avenues.  All these basic goals have their particular champions, but the potential for schism is largely along lines of intensity rather than overall goal.  And this is not necessarily bad- Germany has both a Social Democrat and a Democratic Socialist party.  Each has a share of the Bundestag, and the SPD is actually the default strongest opposition party, while the Left is largely successful in the ehmalige DDR, and parts of Bayern, but maintains firm adherence to neo-Socialist philosophy, providing a sort of moral voice to German progressives.  The Greens are quite successful too, and have been in government as many times as opposition over the past 20 years or so, to which I largely attribute Germany's world leadership in solar and wind power.  Again, the thing to remember is that this actually works.

Right now, the government is a coalition between the Christian Democrats (Conservatives), Free Democrats (Pro-business opportunists with very few principles other than staying in government at all costs, being sidekick to the Christians, and cutting foreign aid budgets and women's shelters with gusto), with the SPD, Grünen, and Linke in opposition.  The fascist NPD and freedom of information Pirate Party are both strong enough at the local level that they may soon win seats as well.

Here's an example of how things go there.  The City of Lübeck, with a city council coalition between SPD, Linke, and Grünen, has recently had its administration dissolved over an issue of cuts- the city's budget repair plan (and I use that term with full knowledge of its significance to my fellow Wisconsinites) mandated a certain level of cutbacks in the social welfare programs that make Europe great.  (Lübeck is a museum capital of the world).  The local government, under the left-centrist SPd, specifically targeted women's shelters for the cuts.  The Left and Greens, in a fine display of German chivalry, stood up to them, and left the government, joining the opposition, so the bill can't go through- the SPD then tried to form a coalition with the Christians, like they've done in Saarland, but the election will likely straighten this out.  Each party has declared its position, responsibly letting the voters know its priority, and now the electorate can make an informed choice, rather than wondering which faction of the victorious party will dominate decision-making.

Another example is in the debate over Aids-treatment funding.  The federal government, led by the Free Democratic Development Minister, is pushing through massive cuts to foreign aid in general and HIV/Aids programs in particular just as a serious dent is being made in new infection rates.  In America, this would play out as the GOP calling for cuts, and the Dems debating, then finally saying "ok" and demolishing lifesaving programs.  In Germany, the SPD seems undecided what to do- but not the Greens and the Left!  They're calling for an expansion of foreign aid, paid for (along with most other budget needs) by implementing a common-sense regulation of a financial transactions tax.

The multi-party parliamentary system ensures that politicians are able to show spine on issues of importance to their voters, and that the abomination of divided government never slows up the functioning of the state for long.  It also enables voters to make more informed decisions as to their choice of candidate and party, and allows a larger number of perspectives to be considered.  Now, this is constitutionally impossible for now, but I earnestly believe this would be a better system- perhaps a state should experiment with redesigning its legislature elections- Nebraska has already done so with a switch to a unicameral legislature in 1934- this experiment has proven a success, and stands to this day.  What we need is a small state willing to experiment- for the first time in American history, political outliers would know their votes would have significance, and we would arrive at a legislature that is more democratic.  (definitely small d, possibly big D)

Now, the question of reconciling this democratization of a legislature with an independent executive...  That's a problem, but I still would love to see this tried on the state or city level somewhere.

Solidarität, mein Genossen und Genossinnen
Graham