Word: fractionalism
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Proportional representation requires successful candidates to get only one tenth of the number one votes cast (approximately 2,300 votes in 1991, in a city with a population of about 93,000) to be elected to the city council. This rather small fraction of the total vote allows, and actually encourages, candidates to cultivate issues and policies that generate the limited but very staunch supporters who can deliver their number one vote for reelection. These staunch supporters come to expect absolute partisan loyalty from candidates, and this leaves no room for compromise on many policy issues. Minority policy positions...
...whether to go along with pleas from the mental-health lobby for "parity" with other medical coverage, which would mean at least an 80% reimbursement of all mental-health treatment. As the Wilberts learned painfully, many insurers now sharply limit access to mental-health care and reimburse only a fraction of the costs, usually a maximum of 50% after high deductibles. Providing such coverage for the severely disabled alone would cost Americans $6.5 billion more a year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health...
...fraction-of-an-inch-long slivers of wood said to be pieces of Christ's Cross -- previously authenticated as relics by the Vatican -- sold at auction for more than $18,000 in Paris. Though the proceeds went to charity, the Vatican called the sale a possible...
...Potter's The Singing Detective, a TV miniseries that hopscotched among layers of reality and expected audiences to get their bearings gradually, by osmosis. Says Prince: "The way the numbers are parsed into Kiss is unique. They are abrupt, fragmented. The scenic design allows you to hallucinate in a fraction of a second. We change venue without lifting, lowering, moving or revealing anything. There is no waiting. It is two realities...
Unfortunately, physicians are able to characterize only a fraction of breast cancer patients as belonging to the "high risk" category before a tumor is actually identified...