[Ultimate Newbie]

Clearly, if you're looking at electoral reform because you're concerned about lack of voter turnout (bringing into question the viability of a vote) and/or the strange results of First past the Post or similar election systems, why not just do it the australian way?

1) Compulsory "voting" (with secret ballots, its impossible to enforce that you have actually voted in the correct fashion, nevertheless it works for all intents and purposes)
2) "Preferential" and/or Proportional voting: Preferential (or instant runoff) for houses where having a strong two party system is important (eg, the lower house), as preferential systems re-inforce a winner and a second place type result. First past the post does this as well, however more power is still had by more minor parties as they are able to indirectly direct part of their preferences towards one (major) party or the other (through how-to-vote cards). Proportional voting tends to result in houses that have the balance of power in neither the government's or the main opposition's hands, and thus it results in either messy coalition governments and/or wrangling over minor party's political positions which can be seen to be undemocratic.

Nevertheless, it solves much of your practical problems. still, it seems everyone is more interested in a philosophical debate about democracy anyway, so i'll leave you all to it.