Madam, – If the Government’s attempts to correct the financial and banking crises prove to be inadequate, the political options will then be either a general election, or a national government, or else chaos.
To manage one of the greatest threats to the stability of the Irish State since its foundation, the option of a “government of all the talents” must at least be considered. Many commentators have said such a possibility would be appropriate in this period of “national emergency”. To the best of our knowledge, however, none has indicated how it might actually be chosen.
The de Borda Institute has long ago devised a methodology for precisely this sort of situation. It is a proportional and preferential voting system which allows all the voters (TDs in this case), not only to state their preferences on who should be in Cabinet, but also to indicate in which post they would like each of their nominees to serve. Thus a parliament could elect those TDs who enjoyed the maximum level of collective support.
The president could then “appoint the taoiseach” and, “on the nomination of the taoiseach with the previous approval of the Dáil Éireann, appoint the other members of the government”, as the Constitution requires. The result would be an all-party, power-sharing, coalition cabinet: a government of national unity.
It is known as the matrix vote. – Yours, etc,