The reason you can’t just vote to change the voting system actually seems a lot simpler to me, based on my experience of the UK AV referendum. The system actually worked well enough to get the idea of switching to a basically sane voting system put to a public referendum. Then look at how that referendum goes. Who stands to benefit?
The public (but they don’t know that)
The small political parties (who lack funding and are unable to mobilise large numbers of voters almost by definition)
Who stands to lose out
The major political parties (who have vast, well funded propaganda machines, good contacts, expertise etc)
So the red party told red voters that using a sane voting system would be bad for the red party, and the blue party told blue voters that using a sane voting system would be bad for the blue party, and the referendum came out as a ‘No’.
The reason you can’t just vote to change the voting system actually seems a lot simpler to me, based on my experience of the UK AV referendum. The system actually worked well enough to get the idea of switching to a basically sane voting system put to a public referendum. Then look at how that referendum goes. Who stands to benefit?
The public (but they don’t know that)
The small political parties (who lack funding and are unable to mobilise large numbers of voters almost by definition)
Who stands to lose out
The major political parties (who have vast, well funded propaganda machines, good contacts, expertise etc)
So the red party told red voters that using a sane voting system would be bad for the red party, and the blue party told blue voters that using a sane voting system would be bad for the blue party, and the referendum came out as a ‘No’.