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This proposal is now in the Commitment phase — example questions are locked!

67 Example Questions (8 closed)

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up vote 24 down vote

added by david4dev Dec 15 '10 at 0:23

For those who don't know, this is the voting system in which candidates are numbered in order of preference. There will be a referendum to move to this voting system in the UK in May 2011. – david4dev Dec 16 '10 at 19:32

I believe this is also called "instance run-off" voting -- and this is a question that I was also going to offer as an example :) – dlongley Dec 17 '10 at 20:23

Great on-topic question – Fergus Dec 18 '10 at 22:31

@dlongley - I think you meant instant -runoff voting. – Dori Dec 19 '10 at 8:36

Yup, silly brain. – dlongley Dec 20 '10 at 17:14

up vote 24 down vote

added by CrazyJugglerDrummer Dec 17 '10 at 15:48

up vote 22 down vote

added by david4dev Dec 15 '10 at 0:21

	Maybe a bit fuzzy? But basically on-topic, IMO. – Lennart Regebro Dec 16 '10 at 15:11
	Would this be better rephrased as 'Are the ideals of communism and libertarianism in conflict?'? – david4dev Dec 16 '10 at 19:35
	Yeah, that's a clearer and narrower question that boils down to the same problem, – Lennart Regebro Dec 16 '10 at 20:23

up vote 21 down vote

added by dlongley Dec 17 '10 at 20:00

up vote 20 down vote

added by Jay Dec 26 '10 at 13:46

up vote 18 down vote

added by CrazyJugglerDrummer Dec 20 '10 at 13:45

Assumes that the US government is a democracy... – Traroth Mar 2 '11 at 16:05

up vote 13 down vote

added by Borror0 Dec 27 '10 at 23:08

I ask this question because I want to know whether objective discussions (read: not arguments) about the content of bills would be on or off topic. – Borror0 Dec 27 '10 at 23:09

up vote 12 down vote

added by BenV Dec 15 '10 at 13:22

This would be a better example if it asked about a particular aspect of the electoral college, i.e. what part is not understood – bemace Jan 8 '11 at 18:31

up vote 11 down vote

added by Mnementh Dec 17 '10 at 19:14

That cannot be answered subjectively, in any shape or form. – Borror0 Jan 5 '11 at 17:10

Perhaps it would work better if phrased as "Are there any definitive cases where Wikileaks has change the direction of government policy?" – bemace Jan 8 '11 at 19:20

@Borror0 I think you mean "objectively". There are plenty of subjective answers :) – eMansipater Apr 19 '11 at 13:30

up vote 8 down vote

added by mootinator Mar 10 '11 at 2:01

up vote 5 down vote

added by david4dev Dec 16 '10 at 20:34

This question is pretty open ended... – fluteflute May 1 '11 at 7:33

up vote 4 down vote

added by Seth P. Jan 21 '11 at 6:28

	I guess you are assuming "in the US"? Please don't make such assumptions. – Lohoris Jun 1 '11 at 7:26
	Questions like this will be attractive to trolls and answers subjective and argumentitive – Chad Jun 7 '11 at 13:42

up vote 4 down vote

added by mootinator Mar 10 '11 at 1:53

up vote 3 down vote

added by Fergus Dec 19 '10 at 7:14

I think the site should be about how governments work, not how effective their policies are, so this is a good off-topic example. – bemace Jan 8 '11 at 18:45

up vote 3 down vote

added by Mark Rogers Jan 7 '11 at 6:15

up vote 3 down vote

added by mfg Jan 27 '11 at 14:18

up vote 3 down vote

added by ghshtalt, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 11 '11 at 20:29

up vote 3 down vote

added by M.Sameer, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 4 '11 at 6:41

up vote 2 down vote

added by Mark Rogers Jan 7 '11 at 6:22

up vote 2 down vote

added by bemace Jan 8 '11 at 19:05

up vote 2 down vote

added by bemace Jan 8 '11 at 19:08

up vote 2 down vote

added by bemace Jan 8 '11 at 19:11

up vote 2 down vote

added by bryanpackman Jan 31 '11 at 3:44

up vote 2 down vote

added by ghshtalt Mar 2 '11 at 13:06

up vote 2 down vote

added by dancek Apr 28 '11 at 12:56

up vote 2 down vote

added by unused Apr 30 '11 at 13:14

	Do you mean House and Senate? – bemace Jun 8 '11 at 15:07
	@bemace Yes, fixed. – unused Jun 10 '11 at 8:44

up vote 1 down vote

added by VonC Dec 16 '10 at 14:54

	Tax cuts or expenditure cuts? The former not necessarily implying the latter, of course. – CodeByMoonlight Dec 17 '10 at 10:05
	@CodeByMoonlight: tax cut, i.e. the idea of "small government", and "more money in the hands of people", but... with big deficits, meaning the need to pay for it with big cuts in social programs. – VonC Dec 17 '10 at 13:31
	This is subjective and really argumentive. – Chad Jun 7 '11 at 13:38

up vote 1 down vote

added by CrazyJugglerDrummer Dec 17 '10 at 15:46

closed as off topic by Ustice, Nellius, Ruben, Lohoris, daniel.sedlacek Feb 24 '11 at 11:18

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

BTW: It was not a "Civil War". There were two separate countries (USA, and the Confederate States of America.) A Civil War is where a country start fighting itself. – Linuxmint Dec 17 '10 at 17:27

@Linuxmint I agree, but history is written by the victors. The South was fighting for a revolution, just as the US did against britain. But the union force usually doesn't want to be fighting against a revolution, they want to degrade the conflict to look like just a small contained disagreement, hence the term 'civil war', even though war is never civil. What its called all depends on who wins. :D – CrazyJugglerDrummer Dec 18 '10 at 19:20

This is more a history question than a question about politics. – Ustice Dec 28 '10 at 20:39

@Linuxmint Technically the CSA was never an actual country, since no country (other than the CSA itself) ever recognised it as one. Very definition of a civil war IMO! – Nellius Jan 7 '11 at 10:49

@Nellius: You don't have to have the recognition of another country to be one. During the American Revolution, "America" was not recognized by any other country as a country. – Linuxmint Jan 7 '11 at 20:06

show 7 more comments

up vote 1 down vote

added by dlongley Dec 17 '10 at 20:15

up vote 1 down vote

added by CrazyJugglerDrummer Dec 20 '10 at 13:57

closed as off topic by bemace, Lohoris, Nellius, M.Sameer, Beofett May 3 '11 at 19:51

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Seems like answers to this would be highly subjective and speculative – bemace Jan 8 '11 at 18:32

More philosophical question than political to me. – M.Sameer Apr 24 '11 at 22:14

up vote 1 down vote

added by Borror0 Jan 6 '11 at 18:53

closed as off topic by bemace, Ruben, Lohoris, mootinator, Lennart Regebro Mar 31 '11 at 7:36

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

I'm torn on this question. It's factual, but politician's positions can change regularly and can be hard to pin down. It also seems to be slightly too far removed from the issues of how governments operate, so for now I come down on the side of off-topic. – bemace Jan 8 '11 at 18:56

@bemace: If the proposal is limited to "how government works", then perhaps "politics" is not the best name for the proposal. Moreover, there is no legitimate reason to be that narrow. – Borror0 Jan 8 '11 at 22:39

@bemace: Most proposals on StackEchange have questions whose answers will eventually be wrong. The best solution to a programming problem will eventually change, for example. – Borror0 Jan 8 '11 at 22:41

@Borror0 That's not necessarily true (about the programming solution). But anyways, I agree that this is on-topic because, if nothing else, the answer has a timestamp on it. And answers can be added/edited if information changes. – Matthew Read Mar 29 '11 at 13:14

GotE- mainly because this would be for a specific person, not a government, policies, or processes. also, if this was allowed you'd get one for each government member – DForck42 May 27 '11 at 16:58

up vote 1 down vote

added by bemace Jan 8 '11 at 18:52

up vote 1 down vote

added by mfg, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 11 '11 at 20:32

up vote 1 down vote

added by mfg Jan 27 '11 at 14:28

up vote 1 down vote

added by mootinator, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 11 '11 at 20:27

Meant to test whether questions ostensibly dealing with economics are on topic. – mootinator Mar 10 '11 at 2:19

up vote 1 down vote

added by Andrew Grimm Mar 11 '11 at 12:59

up vote 1 down vote

added by syockit, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 11 '11 at 20:26

up vote 1 down vote

added by dancek Apr 28 '11 at 12:51

up vote 0 down vote

added by dlongley Dec 17 '10 at 20:05

Suggest changing the wording to be, "What system have been proposed to mitigate or eliminate gerrymandering in the United States, and how do they compare against each other?" – Ustice Dec 28 '10 at 20:36