But what does "democracy" even mean? And how does ranked-choice voting prevent a polity from being a "democracy"?
Does the author realize that the Athenians also voted against people? Every so often, obnoxious politicians were ostracized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism
Ranked-choice voting can be, along similar lines, a way of voting against somebody.
For whatever it's worth, the Athenians would be absolutely aghast at "representative democracy" -- feeling, as they did, that every male citizen was inherently a representative of Athens. (Hence Athenian travelers, little more than peddlers, felt capable of speaking on behalf of Athens when they once found themselves in Sparta.) The modern wage-earner, and not only in New York, is already more a Helot than an Athenian.
It started with a sensationalist, click-bait headline that received no clarification or support in the text.
Then it bellyached a little bit over how ranked-choice voting (1) penalizes candidates that are disliked by broad segments of the populace, and (2) enables strategic "coalitions" and endorsements. As if that's somehow undemocratic? It merely enables practices that are somewhat akin to the old practice of voting against somebody, which the ancients would recognize as far more democratic than the alternative.
We live in the worst and most limited form of "democracy" possible -- if it is even worthy of the name. Anything that gives the populace more choices, more options, more power is always good.
kgwxd•5h ago