Gay Forum

They certainly do multi-party systems better than we do. Our coalitions usually involve either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael (both right wing) and Labour, except the government prior to this one which was FF, the Progressive Democrats (neo-liberals) and the Greens (who got blamed for shit that wasn't their fault, they had five seats! Hardly think they had much sway over government at all at all!)

baileyscheesecake wrote:They certainly do multi-party systems better than we do. Our coalitions usually involve either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael (both right wing) and Labour, except the government prior to this one which was FF, the Progressive Democrats (neo-liberals) and the Greens (who got blamed for shit that wasn't their fault, they had five seats! Hardly think they had much sway over government at all at all!)

By contrast, here's the composition of the Dutch House of Representatives:



And the Senate:



They really need to work together to form governments, and I think that's a very good thing.

Nah, here Dail do everything, Seanad just eats our tax money
Ours is a lot less gradual.

Blue is FG, red is Labour, light green in Fianna Fail, dark green is Sinn Fein. Only real players those four.

Nowadays, I'm a Burkean conservative with a libertarian bent.

Iceland.



Red is the Social Democratic Alliance. Green is the Left-Green Movement. Blue is the Independence Party. The dark green is the Progressive Party.

Election in two months that will most likely remove our leftist government (Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement) for a center right one (The Independence Party and the Progressive Party) that got us into this disaster in the first place but there is a new centrist party I'm voting for that will most likely get 10-20% of the vote.

baileyscheesecake wrote:the Greens (who got blamed for shit that wasn't their fault, they had five seats! Hardly think they had much sway over government at all at all!)

The junior coalition partner will always be punished for "selling out". My main gripe with the Greens was that they campaigned against Fianna Fáil in 2007 and then supported them after the election.

baileyscheesecake wrote:Blue is FG, red is Labour, light green in Fianna Fail, dark green is Sinn Fein. Only real players those four.

I hope Sinn Féin never becomes any more of a player. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are avoiding them like the plague.

Brenden wrote:There's proportional representation, which ensures that every vote is equal and counted and Parliament actually reflects the political affiliations of the people.

We use PR-STV in constituencies of 3, 4 or 5 seats. I'd like to see some kind of a party list system but it's highly unlikely to come about because of our political culture.

Dude, Sinn Fein are basically the only left wing party we have anymore. I no longer care about their IRA involvement. SF will bring gay marriage and hopefully put our burdens on the fucking bankers. True, they may wage war against the UK, but then we can just move.

I'm a social democrat, so one of those people who thinks government intervention is generally good and that it is through democratic process and individual involvement in democracy that the best outcomes are achieved, these outcomes generally being those leaning towards a larger welfare state with proportional taxation.

Which means I'd vote Democracts/Green in the US, Labor/Green in Australia, and anything liberal/socialist elsewhere (in Australia, we stupidly have a conservative party called 'The Liberal Party' which is annoying beyond all hell to explain why).

In Australia we have a bicameral system with the lower house (the more important one in Aus.) being elected based on 'seats' (constituencies) that are roughly based on population. So Sydney, for instance, has a huge number of seats due to it's dense population, whereas 6 seats cover geographically 80% of the country (we have 150 seats). However the city seats are fairly stable in their voting, so massive expenditure goes to rural areas and specific regional areas to win swing seats and thus gain parliament. The upper house is based on proportional voting (% based).

This leads to some very messy governments. If neither part has more than 75 seats in the lower house they cannot form government and have to win over independents and the Greens (the only minor party that wins federal seats) to form government. And then they have to control the upper house as well to pass bills through both houses.

Currently the Labor (centre-left) government in power has fewer seats than the Coalition (Liberal Party + National Party, centre-right) but through negotiations with independents and the Greens (generally left) they have a total of ~76 seats, whereas the Coalition has the other independents and Katter's Crazies Party to form the opposition. The Greens/Labor informal coalition also control the senate.

Basically what this means is that the government we almost elected into power based on the constituencies, the Coalition (Labor held onto a few seats by a very narrow margin, and it took a full week before we knew the results) held only 44% of the popular vote.

F#$ked up duopolic systems are present everywhere in the world unfortunately :/

EDIT: And here's an image of the houses, courtesy of the ABC

Original Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-30/c ... rt/4491594

Image © Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2011

I'm a libertarian-leaning Republican in the United States. An oversimplification would be that I think the government should deliver the mail, defend the shores, and stay out of everyones lives and pocket books. Obviously there are exceptions, but yeah.

I'm moderate in American politics. I used to be devoutly liberal, almost to the point of being a leftist, but I've always kept an open mind and honored reason and merit for all viewpoints.

abmis wrote:I'm moderate in American politics. I used to be devoutly liberal, almost to the point of being a leftist, but I've always kept an open mind and honored reason and merit for all viewpoints.

How did you even find a seven-year-old thread?

That's what politics does to a person! XD Hahaha! Idk, I have no life I guess and managed to dig up the basement of threads on this forum.