An idea has been percolating among American writers and thinkers who care about the function—and future—of US democracy.
In his New York Times column, David Brooks hailed proportional representation as “one reform that could save America.” The Editorial Board of the New York Times then called it the “only way a democracy can survive.” And Vox’s Matthew Yglesias has long argued that “Proportional representation could save America.”
Most Americans, though, aren’t familiar—even the vast number of us hungry for democracy reform. (At Sightline, we’re calling proportional representation the democracy solution that American voters don’t know they want!) But Canadians have been talking about switching for a while. And British Colombians are voting right now, by referendum, whether to ditch their winner-take-all system and opt for a proportional one. (BC’s voting period ends tomorrow; the vote count will take another week or so.)
If BC voters upgrade their democracy, they could blaze a trail for Americans to follow. American democracy reform experts are paying close attention. Click through here to find out how Lee Drutman, Eric Liu, David Faris, and Krist Novoselic are talking about proportional representation.