the later and more economics-oriented work of Marx, but it has continued to
be of vital interest and importance in social thought generally. It has often been
applied far too loosely so that alienation frequently means no more than
unhappiness; but some new applications are obviously legitimate extensions of
Marx’s usage, as when feminists argue that capitalist society, as part of its
generally dehumanizing effect, alienates men from women. However, there are
serious objections to the concept of alienation. Firstly, though Marx’s writing
is often highly persuasive in regard to the existence of the phenomenon, many
critics hold that alienation is created by the division of labour endemic to any
high-technology economy (perhaps even by the very nature of such econo-
mies) rather than by a particular system of property rights; and if this is so,
alienation will remain a problem even under fully-developedcommunism.
Secondly, the concept of alienation relies on the unprovable idea that a basic or
true human nature exists. From a philosophical point of view the concept
would be useful only if it could be shown (a) that man really would have certain
characteristics under a different system, and (b) that these are in some sense
‘natural’. Yet Marxists, and most others who make use of the concept, are
strongly opposed to the idea that any basic human nature exists independently
of social reality. Despite such problems, the concept retains its vigour and is
widely used in social analysis.
Alternative Vote
The alternative vote is probably the simplest of all forms ofproportional
representation, though as a result it is not very proportional. It works by
asking each voter to order their preferences among candidates. A candidate
receiving a majority of first preferences is elected, giving the same result as
under the plurality system (seevoting systems). If no candidate gains a
majority of first preferences, the least successful candidate is eliminated and the
second preferences of their supporters allocated and added to the initial totals.
If there is still no candidate with a majority of the new sum of first and second
preferences, this procedure continues for as many rounds as are required to
produce one. This system does help to increase the representation of parties
which typically come second in seats where no majority occurs, but large
degrees of misrepresentation can still survive. This method is, in fact, a simpler
and automatic version of thesecond ballotsystem, though it is capable of
modification in various ways. One sensible modification is to exclude not the
candidate with least first preferences, but the candidate with most last pre-
ferences. This avoids the anomaly that a candidate who was every voter’s
second choice, and no voter’s first choice, cannot be elected in the ordinary
alternative vote system, because they will be eliminated after the first round.
Alternative Vote