Os círculos uninominais (outra vez)

No âmbito de debate sobre os círculos uninominais, o António Amaral (não existe aqui nenhuma relação familiar...), do Arte da Fuga deu-nos indicação deste artigo publicado por Jack Straw, precisamente sobre as vantagens e desvantagens da representação proporcional.

O artigo é todo ele bastante interessante, mas saliento apenas algumas partes:

Those who favour PR must face this truth: you can have proportional voting, but you cannot have proportional decision-taking.
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Sobre os programas eleitorais que, mesmo vencedores, nem sempre se tornam, na representação proporcional, de governo:

The issue, then, is at what stage a coalition of votes and representatives coalesces into a bloc capable of making yes/no decisions. Under first-past-the-post, this transition takes place at the time of the election. In proportional systems, where no party can typically gain a clear majority of seats, the transition takes place after the election.

Parties may have set out their positions in their manifestos, but the document which matters is the coalition programme agreed behind closed doors after the election. So what voters see is not necessarily what they are going to get. This may also mean that parties' programmes are not subject to the relentless examination by opponents and media which ours are.
(...)

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Sobre a aproximação eleitor e eleito:

Moreover, no PR system has the inherent democratic strength of single-member territorial constituencies. In the last fortnight, I may have been in Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Luxembourg and Brussels, but this week I am back in Blackburn. I cannot shuffle off my responsibility to someone else with whom I share the constituency, or - worse - with others on a regional or national list. I'm answerable and accountable: it's direct, in-your-face democracy, it's simple and it works.

Sobre as verdadeiras mudanças de governo e o rejuvenescimento ideológico dos partidos que perdem.

While the Free Democrats were in power in Germany for the 29 years to 1998, Labour was out of power for all but seven in the UK. In those dark days of opposition, most of us did not call for a new voting system to ensure that the electorate gave us a better answer the next time, but argued for a refreshed ideology and new policies to reconnect us with the electorate. It's been better for my party, and infinitely better for the country than the quick fix of PR would ever have been.