Italian Elections and Politics 2018: Yellow Tide

[Insula Dei]

I think it's because they're sort of a Frankenstein of at least two different concepts for what an election should produce--'an election should produce an accurate representation of the votes cast' and 'an election should produce a stable governing majority for one political pole'. They just feel 'off' to people even though there's not really much objective reason to have a serious problem with them.

To a lot of us Europeans 'an election should produce an accurate representation of the votes cast' is the only real democratic principle. I don't think a bonus is worse than FPTP. I just find both methods abominable.

At least FPTP is about representation, majority bonuses just are about benefiting large parties.

[Insula Dei]

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I think it's because they're sort of a Frankenstein of at least two different concepts for what an election should produce--'an election should produce an accurate representation of the votes cast' and 'an election should produce a stable governing majority for one political pole'. They just feel 'off' to people even though there's not really much objective reason to have a serious problem with them.

But isn't trying to concurrently maximize two desirable goals the very essence of politics? Although I agree with Politicus that the fair representation principle is more important in the abstract, such principle can only fully prevail in "civilized" countries like the Scandinavians, where a hung parliament doesn't result in utter chaos. In Italy, full proportionality would have a catastrophic impact, and some correction is needed. But that doesn't mean we need to completely renounce to some degree of fair representation. I think that the current bill, though far from perfect, is a decent compromise in that regard.
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Hannah Arendt wept.