this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
858 points (96.8% liked)

Political Memes

5401 readers
3641 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Sounds unstable and scary.

edit: calm down, I'm sure 90% of the time it's a much better system than the US, but the way it is described in the title does not sound stable.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Usually we just vote, they find a coalition and it stays that way for a few years

About coalitions: they mean that the parties in power need at least 50%, so if there's not a single party with over 50% ("absolute majority") they need a partner. The big parties in my country usually get 20-30%.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Usually we just vote, they find a coalition and it stays that way for a few years

laughs in Italian

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've read that in Belgium (the worst offendor in this regard), the regional governments have so much power that not having a national government for a year or so isn't much of a problem.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Belgium is a federal country, like Germany or the US. The regions have control over some things, not everything. Plus the current federal government stays as caretaker until a new government is formed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Better an unstable government than an unstable guy at the lead.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Not everything has to be a zero sum game

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I'd argue that political stability consists of and depends on at least rule of law, separation of powers and democratic representation. The EU and its member still have a lot to progress in this regard, though. Coalition building is kind of a comprise towards building pluralistic quasi-consensus based decision-making.

IMO, coalition political systems have the potential to politically deal better with long-term issues as small parties can influence governments beyond a single term. Green parties, but unfortunately also far-right parties, for example can thus push for their topics.

The US also had a coalition, the National Unity Party during its Civil War.