Key words: Election Voting Systems, Democratic Voting Rules, Condorcet, Single Transferable Vote, STV, Proportional Representation, Ensemble Rules, Parliamentary Rules of Order, Cooperative Decision Making, Political Science, Comparative Politics, Diversity, Freedom, Simulation.

Microsoft Excel 4 or higher is required.  The files are 1100K Zipped and 2200K decompressed.  

Political Sim (TM) lets players taste 20 flavors of democratic voting.  From Zuidland to Australia there are many ways to elect reps.  Each country's voting rule creates hot spots on the electoral field.  But the strong positions move if the voting rule is changed.  And rivals may position to cut off support.  

Elections for research or fun may have 2 to 16 candidates, competing for 1 to 7 seats.  Simulated voters rank candidates, giving 1st choice to the closest, 2nd choice to the 2nd closest, and so on.  Their positions may represent geography or political opinions.  Moving a candidate requires paying for ads and answering interview questions can win donations.  

Voting Rules!
Political Sim allows voting by all the widely used rules such as Australia's STV, Japan's SNTV, Holland's list PR, USA's open primary, and France's runoff; plus limited, cumulative, and the now illegal bloc voting rules.  You may add your own rules in Excel spreadsheets or macros.  The free version available here can tally 64 simulated voters.  Other versions can tally up to 16,000 real or simulated voters and 256 real candidates.  

The greatest risk to democracy, the greatest political sin, is 
continuing to use ancient rules that make democracy work poorly.  
Responsive Democracy requires 
1) inclusive, 2) well-centered, and 3) timely decision making.  
So it needs to elect 1) diverse reps, 2) centrist reps, and 3) balanced legislation.  
1) Diverse reps (80%) form an inclusive and balanced council.  
2) Centrist reps (20%) form a balance point for council majorities. 
3) Condorcet's rule reduces manipulation and speeds legislation. 
(All motions to amend or delay a bill are ranked at once.) 

    It is ironic that broad Proportional Representation helps a central Condorcet winner get the council's swing vote.  It proves that a community's diversity can be a source of balance and moderation as well as perspective.  The new ensemble rules may change our fundamental concepts and expectations of voting and government from tools of cultural war among interest groups to tools giving structural support to diversity and its freedoms.