Posts by giovanni tiso
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But I did a 1st year history essay in 1993 on the Italian political system. My conclusion was that the lack of stability they'd had in coalitions over the past few decades was largely down to the low level of proportionality so that coalitions needed to be held together by umpteen parties at the various levels, and when they had (what the Italian expert in my department would call a "very Italian") falling out the government fell over and had to be reconstructed with a bunch of the other parties for a while longer
Would it be possible for me to have a word with the Italian expert in your department? Or you could slap him or her on the thighs very hard on my behalf, I'm really not that fussed.
Here's the thing: imagine you have National in power for the next forty-six years. (Stopped shivering yet?) Never, or seldom, alone, most often in coalition with bits and pieces parties, two or three or even four at a time. Only at the end, for a period of a little over ten years, does one of these partners exceed 10 per cent of the vote, at which point National throws them the bone of the occasional prime ministership. Would you call this "unstable"? It's the closest I can think of to one party rule in a Western democracy. But then of course if you're always alone in power you do bicker, and you get corrupt, and factions start to form within your own party, which is what happened; our governments collapsed all the time not because the small parties wielded power, but because the Christian Democrats staged endless internal power struggles. These collapses didn't always lead to early elections (although we seldom made it the requisite five years without one, it has to be said), but rather to the "rimpasto", a game of musical chairs in which ministerships were swapped to reflect the changing fortunes of the factions within the ruling party.
Not sure what any of this has to do with proportionality, with FPP it would have been worse if anything.
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I remember that march; it was fun (thanks for organising it, BTW)
It was, rather, wasn't it? The Scoop release has the text of Tze Ming's speech in front of Parliament, I never realised that. Like a guest post from the past.
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You're making T-shirts out of my comments?
Hey, do I get a cut?I don't sell them, so all you can get a cut of are the expenses. So yes please!
Speaking of which, they're having their "flag day" in Wellington tomorrow. Feel free to go along and tell them what you think of them and their hateful version of patriotism.
Oh, but it's been done. Do we even still bother? I guess we ought to, seen as they keep at it...
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Finally, democracy isn't about "good governance" - it's about our governance. It should not be constrained simply in order to limit policy discussion to options you are comfortable with.
...and I/S make me fire up the T-shirt printer again. You're costing me a small fortune in ink, mate.
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New Zealand is a society that is way more politically polarised than we care to admit. Doing away with the threshold assumes a level of economic, political and social homogenity we simply don't have, and the 5% threshold keeps in check some of the more extremist ends of our political spectrum.
I'm going to have to disagree there, NZ is pretty homogenous politically, compared to most countries I'm aware of (certainly waaaaaay more than my home country). Where are all these radicals on the outside of parliament looking in? Are the destiny church and the socialist workers' party your "extremes"? Is the National Front, that can't compete at the city council level and wouldn't muster an MP regardless of the threshold? Thing is, we do have a 5% threshold and in the last ten years it's kept out the Alliance and a couple of christian parties, in terms of entities that would have achieved representation hadn't been for that barrier. None of them would be considered "extremist" parties anywhere on the planet.
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Low or no thresholds are what allowed Hitler into goverment and brought endlessly unstable governments to places like Italy...
Pant, pant... uhf... sorry, I was in the attic, shifting some boxes.
Anyways, no, that's a myth. Italy had a long, semi-continuous, stable government with the Christian Democrats in power between 1946 and 1992. Beat that with a stick (I know I felt like it).
It's not small parties that make it difficult to form strong, stable governments, anyways: it's the strict proportionality. Give the relative majority party an allotment of bonus MPs, and that will be overcome (not that I'm advocating it, I like strict proportionality). -
Giovanni: pentacoalition? I'm holding out for "quincunx".
Heh. But seriously, we had the Pentapartito in Italy for several terms (Christian Democrats, Socialists - don't ask - Liberals, Republicans, Social Democrats), and it was fun fun fun. One summer they even formed a hydra that they themselves called "monocolore frastagliato" - an incredibly baroque way of saying "single-party plus" - but that in other circles was quickly re-dubbed "explosive dissentery". Good times.
FWIW (which is to say, nought point zilch) I would be nervous of Labour forming a five-party coalition that barely made it to 61, with National as the first party in parliament by quite a margin sitting on the opposition benches. The risk of going back to voting early and National winning in a true landslide with a mandate to ditch MMP would be considerable, I fear. I wouldn't be averse to Key trying his and at governing with Hide and Turia and Douglas and his own ship of fools for a bit, on the other hand. I think it would make for good viewing.
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Do [New Zealanders] want to put in a National government with a fresh view that will work going in one direction with a small group of parties, or do they want a potentially five-headed monster?
And do what, renounce the opportunity to use the word "penta-coalition"? That's just crazy talk.
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He obliged, rang the bell and promptly the entire floor of this department store stopped and all the staff clapped.
That's exactly what the faculty office does at Victoria when a student comes in to say they've completed their PHd. I'm told.
Buying shirts seems a lot less trouble.
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It would seem that in the US there really is lilttle point in bothering to vote. At least John McCain seems to think so.