Horse Trading and Pork Barrels

Horse trading and pork barrels sound like rural terms. In Interactive Democracy they may have a rural dimension... let me explain.

Many people abhor the prospect of a hung parliament and they suggest that it will result in much behind the scenes horse trading and uncertainty. To garner the support of independent MPs, coalitions may offer them all sorts of sweeteners - pork barrel politics. This may be the case, or it could be that what some people call horse trading, others call debate and negotiation.

Interactive Democracy seeks to improve political debate by distributing votes on separate issues equitably across the electorate. It side steps the political wrangling and power broking of a hung parliament. However, there is still a danger of sweetening ID proposals if they can be structured to benefit the large urban centres where the majority of voters reside, to the detriment of rural areas. At least, that could be the case if city dwellers ignored the importance of rural areas to the national interest.... I don't believe they would.

(Please see this site for an explanation of the population map, above.)