The Failure of the Alternative Vote as a Tool for Ethnic Moderation in Fiji

Abstract

In Donald Horowitz's rejoinder to Fraenkel and Grofman, he retreats from his previous claims about the desirability of alternative vote (AV), mischaracterizes our formal results, and nowhere addresses the extreme disproportionality of electoral outcomes in Fiji except to incorrectly dismiss this as due largely to malapportionment. Although he refuses to recognize the role AV played in the build-up to the overthrow of the Indian-led government in May 2000, Horowitz does acknowledge that the system he so strongly urged on Fiji's reformers failed to achieve its intended objectives at the elections of August 2001. Show more