Developing the idea of communities further, not only do we all belong to geographic communities, but we belong to a wide range of other communities, some defined by our hobbies, some defined by our professions, and some defined by our beliefs. For example, I belong to a community of re-enactors, a community of engineers, and a community of liberals.
Representation in parliament is currently limited to the geographic communities we belong to, as expressed by the administrative hierarchy I’ve already talked about. Should the other communities we belong to have any form of representation and how could this be achieved?
I find it hard to imaging any system that enables representation of the full range of communities I belong to, but it feels there should be some kind of non-geographic representation.
To some extent the voting system used in Germany allows this. Under the “Alternative Member System” (AMS) you cast two votes: one for your constituency and one where you express your party preference. At the very least this allows you to vote for the candidate you think will do best for your constituency and separately vote for the party you think best represents the sum total of your beliefs and interests.