George Washington called the need for Proportional Representation, 229 years ago

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Would you believe it if I told you George Washington, a founding father of the US, and its first president, predicted the need for Proportional Representation, 229 years ago?

An excerpt from Washington's 1796 farewell address, reads:

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."

Today is the anniversary of George Washington’s farewell address in which he warned that bitter party politics would tear nations apart. He described how factionalism breeds revenge, false alarms, jealousy, riots, and corruption. Once people grow tired of the chaos, they look for security in a strong leader, handing absolute power to whoever seems most capable. That’s how liberty dies. Worst of all, it opens the door for foreign powers to exploit those divisions until one country’s policy is dictated by the will of another.

Sound familiar?

The US today is proof of his fears, but the UK isn’t much better. Constant party warfare distracts from solving real problems, leaves government weak and reactive, and makes us vulnerable to manipulation from outside.

Washington’s advice was simple: a wise people must restrain the spirit of party before it destroys public liberty. Maybe that’s something we need to hear again, on both sides of the Atlantic.

George Washington probably didn’t envisage that besides foreign powers, corporate powers would also exploit party divisions. Yet here we are, with big money and vested interests steering policy while the public is distracted and left behind.

That’s why we need Proportional Representation, to break the stranglehold of two-party politics and make every vote count. And it’s why I’ve supported campaigns like Compassion in Politics in the past: because a healthier democracy requires not just fairer systems, but a more humane political culture.

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