[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: ] Proportional representation and poverty reduction...

[Terrie]

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Ontario has a referendum on proportional representation this October. I sent
this to the Toronto Star today.  If in Ontario, please forward to interested
parties. -- Dennis Raphael

Is Proportional Representation The Path To Poverty Reduction In Canada?

Despite the best efforts of the Toronto Star's "War on Poverty" and
sustained advocacy efforts on the part of numerous groups over the past two
decades, Canadian - and Ontario -- poverty rates remain among the highest of
developed nations.

Research and polling data indicate that it is not Canadians' understandings
and attitudes towards poverty that are responsible for this. Indeed, most
polls show Canadians to be strongly in favor of policies to redistribute
wealth and provide adequate salaries and supports such that poverty in
Canada would become obsolete.

Actually, the key barrier to having policy development in the service of
poverty reduction may be the "first past the post" electoral system. Under
this system, a party has to come in first in order to win the local seat in
the legislature. If this does not occur, a party gets nothing for its
efforts. In contrast, in the system called proportional representation, a
party that garnered only 20% of the votes in every district would receive
20% of the seats in the legislature.

Despite the accepted wisdom, adopting some form of proportional
representation is not a "radical" approach to governance. Proportional
representation is the norm in virtually all European nations.  And in many
cases such systems have been in place since the early 1900s.

Why would having a form of proportional representation be the path to
poverty reduction? Analysis indicates that nations that have proportional
representation have significantly lower poverty rates than those retaining
the first past the post electoral system. This comes about because these
nations whose legislatures better reflect the popular will devote greater
effort to providing economic and social security to their citizens. Put
bluntly, they have more developed welfare states that work to assure that as
few people as possible fall into poverty because of no fault of their own.

This appears to be the case because such a system requires governments to
consider all voices in policymaking - the left as well as the right. Indeed
the conclusion by scholars that the influence of "left  political parties"
is important to the development of the welfare state and its maintenance in
the post-industrial capitalist era is consistent with Canadian experience.

These "left" parties are more likely to support redistribution of wealth and
advocate for universal social and health programs. Harvard economists
Alesina and Glaeser provide an extensive evidence of how proportional
representation enhances the growth and influence of these political parties,
thereby strengthening the welfare state. Such political systems enable more
parties particularly political parties that are pro-redistribution and
opposed to poverty to gain representation that contributes to the formation
of more responsive legislatures - usually in the form of minority
governments.

This analysis is consistent with the Canadian experience. Medicare and
public pensions came about during Lester Pearson minority governments where
the Tommy Douglas federal NDP held the balance of power.  The Liberal-NDP
pact during the 1980s saw significant investment in public housing and
citizen security. More recently the ability of the Layton federal NDP to
influence policymaking led to significant federal commitments to housing,
childcare, and public transportation.

Proportional representation therefore is important since it guarantees that
"left" or progressive political parties and voters would be come more able
to influence government policy. In Canada - and Ontario -- it would mean
there would always be minority governments that would have to compromise to
stay in power. Canada (and Ontario) -- would become a nation (and province)
with a more developed welfare programs that would allocate a greater
percentage of national wealth to social spending and other programs that
would serve to increase citizen security, thereby reducing poverty.

It is not often that citizens in a province can turn public policy towards a
significant issue such as poverty reduction around almost overnight.  Voting
to support a new form of electoral representation in Ontario would do so.
Will we take advantage of this opportunity?

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Links of interest:

Poverty and Policy in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life by
Dennis Raphael
Foreword by Jack Layton
http://tinyurl.com/2uds3s

Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health Care,
edited by Dennis Raphael, Toba Bryant, and Marcia Rioux
Foreword by Gary Teeple
http://www.cspi.org/books/s/staying.htm

Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives, edited by Dennis
Raphael
Foreword by Roy Romanow
http://www.cspi.org/books/s/socialdeter.htm

See a lecture!  The Politics of Population Health
http://msl.stream.yorku.ca/mediasite/viewer/?peid=ac604170-9ccc-4268-a1af-9a
9e04b28e1d

Also, presentation on Politics and Health at the Centre for Health
Disparities in Cleveland Ohio
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4129139685624192201&hl=en

Dennis Raphael, PhD
Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto ON M3J 1P3
416-736-2100, ext. 22134
email: draphael at yorku.ca
http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/draphael


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-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
"If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant." June Callwood
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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