Does Preferential voting work?

[Edmundus1581]

Basically wondering if it had the effect of tempering the political parties and keeping them from going too far left or right.

I don’t think it has been noted as having that effect, but I can see how it would. Our two major Australian parties are clustered on the left and right of centre. For instance, the “Liberal” party is basically conservative (classical economic “liberals”). They get the more conservative social voters (eg. anti-SSM) as well, because people who vote for the smaller conservative parties will put their preferences to the Liberals. The direction of preferences from the smaller parties is well known and calculated into major party policies, and probably keeps them closer to centre.

Interesting point! I agree, and it’s not well known.

I’m with most Australians, and the commenters here, that preferential voting is easy and works well. The main benefit is that it encourages smaller parties, with clearer focus, to stand. Eg. we have a number of very focused “right” and “left” parties. People can vote for them without losing their vote, because if their candidate does badly their preference will still go to a major party (and count as 1 whole vote). Occassionally a candidate for a smaller party gets elected, which is great for democracy, and probably wouldn’t happen if people feared voting for them was a “waste” of a vote.