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  1. Is the Myth of the Lost Cause a myth in of itself?

    But unlike the 13 state during the War of Independence, the US South DID have representation, not equal representation, but fair and just representation according to the Constitution (according to population in the House and each state equal in the Senate, etc). The fact that the South's...

  2. Is the Myth of the Lost Cause a myth in of itself?

    My understanding of the Lost Cause myth is that a lot of the myth is based on the fact that prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the primary reason the Union resorted to physical force was because the South had engaged in unilateral secession. Which is strictly speaking true enough. However...

  3. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    One thing about MMP that is at least theoretically an issue (not sure in practice how much of an issue it is, and it's something that the public could be informed about if it was) in places that are transferring from single-member systems, is that the voter must be aware that their party list...

  4. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    It seems to work reasonably well in Germany. Personally I prefer regular proportional representation, however I think in most English-speaking nations, MMP is more likely to be adopted than PR, given the seemingly unshakeable cultural preference in these nations for having a specific local...

  5. AHC: Labor Wins The 2013 Australian Election

    Realistically, if Gillard had decided to play hardball with the Greens and refused to budge on the Carbon Tax issue, what could they have realistically done? Unlike the Democrats who were centrist, the Greens are of course well the left of the ALP, so the ALP in negotiations does the have...

  6. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    Is there any particular reason for this? Is it just the very high population of England compared to the rest of the UK? Or is it a concern that people will oppose an England-wide at-large district because 'if we don't assign them a particular locale, they'll all choose to live in London'? I'm...

  7. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    While Alon has posted a link which provides a comprehensive overview of MMP, I'll use a very simplified and 'back of an envelope calculation' example of how it work. Under MMP, all voters get to 2 votes: a constituency vote (which they do now under FPTP) and a party list vote. The constituency...

  8. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    Any interest in this?

  9. Introduction of Mixed Member Proportional electoral system in the UK?

    Challenge: To have the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system replace First Past The Post (FPTP) in the UK at national elections. POD: Anytime from 1945 onwards. More information: Most discussions of the possibility of changing the electoral system in the UK centre on the...

  10. No world wars: does decolonisation still happen?

    My understanding of the reasoning behind the 'Africa was decolonised too soon' argument is the comparison made with India. Of course there are many other reasons why India fared better post-independence than Africa, but one of them is said to be how since the very early 20th century, there has...

  11. U.S. Constitution requires simple majority of both Houses to approve treaties?

    Just a question: What is the specific reason why the 2/3rd majority of (only) the Senate rule was included the US Constitution in the first place? Is this used in other federations? Was it done to prevent the Federal government from using its treaty-making powers to undermine state powers? I'm...

  12. Post 1945 POD: Minimum Plausible Work-Week by 2014

    It is true that nowadays it would hard in most metropolitan areas to afford rent on 15 hours of work a week, but would in this ATL rents rise that much if most people have comparatively lower incomes with which to pay the rent with? To some extent the prices of some things rise with the...

  13. Can Gorbachev enact China styles reforms?

    Perhaps, the most plausible (or alternatively the least implausible) way to get the USSR to 'do a China', is precisely NOT to have China do those reforms and instead become even more ideologically driven and militarily assertive in Asia (particularly SE Asia) in the 1970's and post-Mao. Of...

  14. Post 1945 POD: Minimum Plausible Work-Week by 2014

    In the first half of the 20th century, it was widely viewed that by the early 21st century, the working-week would be significantly lower that it is currently (35-40 in most Western nations). Probably the most famous example of this was Keynes who in the essay Economic Possibilities for Our...

  15. What if Heath won the '74 election?

    I agree a military coup is unlikely, although the concept of it being a Tory government overthrown by a military coup would make a very interesting TL (the usual assumption is that it would be a hard-left Labour government that was overthrown).

  16. WI: Bush Administration doesn't alienate Iran

    Isn't this a bit of an exaggeration? I don't mean that the Iranian government since 1979 hasn't been a fundamentalist regime, but I mean that your comment seems to imply that is something unstable/'mad' about the leadership, which I would tend to disagree with; this is the thing that in my...

  17. Why didn't the US intervene during the Cuban Revolution?

    I was always under the impression that it is generally Argentina/Uruguay/Chile (particularly the latter two) that have been consistently viewed as the Latin American nations most likely to have Western level development, not least because they are basically the Western Hemisphere versions of...

  18. USA: Block or unseat Hoover

    It is often assumed that the reason Hoover was so overly lenient to the Mafia was because they have incriminating photos and blackmailing him. But you definitely have a point. Given that Hoover was disliked by quite a lot of influential people, it is quite surprising that no one decided to...

  19. WI the West goes Left in the 1970s?

    Isn't the much of at least the initial cause of much of the decline in Western manufacturing due to the massive reductions in tariffs since the early 1960s? Broadly I do agree that much of the post-war/New Deal-era economic consensus works best when there is an implicit deal between...

  20. WI the West goes Left in the 1970s?

    I disagree with many who say it is impossible for the West to have turned left in the 1970s/80s, 'because it has already turned Left'. What it IS correct to say, is that it was clear in the mid-late 1970s that much of the 'post-war economic settlement' wasn't working particularly well...
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