How does PR result in more positive, issue-oriented election campaigns?
A. The reasons why depend on the type of PR that is used. If it is a party oriented system, such as the “party-list” or “mixed member” systems, then the discussions (and advertisements) are about the parties’ platforms, performance, and history — not about individuals. Parties may attack each other, but the attacks are not normally the ugly personal attacks that we so often see in the United States. The other major type of PR is the Choice Voting system, in which the voter ranks his/her choices 1, 2, 3, etc. These elections tend to have positive campaigns because in order to win candidates must obtain not just #1 rankings, but also #2, #3, and even #4 rankings. So they cannot afford to attack their opponents, or they will lose lower ranking votes, and that could easily cost them the election. You see, it is not that candidates suddenly become nicer people when PR is used. Most candidates under any electoral system would prefer to run clean, positive, and issue-oriented campaigns. The
