tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post6843906293660277461..comments2024-03-22T11:34:45.165+01:00Comments on taw's blog: How much democracy in your democracy?tawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16972845140253292628noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-64469950206326458232010-04-21T18:14:25.616+02:002010-04-21T18:14:25.616+02:00Sebastian: Turnout should only matter if some grou...Sebastian: Turnout should only matter if some groups of voters vote more often than others. If 10% of voters voted, but it was totally random, the results wouldn't be any different.<br /><br />wordsandpictures: You are correct, Ireland clusters with continental Europe, not with UK and its other dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand).tawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16972845140253292628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-24115265996067010792010-04-21T18:10:30.776+02:002010-04-21T18:10:30.776+02:00The Republic of Ireland was formerly part of the U...The Republic of Ireland was formerly part of the UK, but shifted to a system of proportional representation unlike many other former dominions. Note that UK citizens resident in the Republic can vote in the parliamentary elections, and vice versa as well.wordsandpictureshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749544351121146391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-72088478047989335812010-04-20T20:29:31.605+02:002010-04-20T20:29:31.605+02:00Sorry, seems I cropped the url.
http://en.wikiped...Sorry, seems I cropped the url.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout#International_differences" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout#International_differences</a>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416711855405596327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-19413749260631584662010-04-20T20:26:57.926+02:002010-04-20T20:26:57.926+02:00Interesting read.
Voter turnout and how easy or h...Interesting read.<br /><br />Voter turnout and how easy or hard the election systems make it to vote is another thing to consider when deciding how legitimate governments are.<br /><br />For example whether elections are held on weekdays (like in the US) or weekends (Sweden, and yes I'm Swedish and probably biased) affects the turnout.<br /><br />This chart gives an overview of international turnout: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout#International_differencesUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416711855405596327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-78082343176404599622010-04-20T17:28:07.167+02:002010-04-20T17:28:07.167+02:00Singapore isn't terribly democratic. (Democrac...Singapore isn't terribly democratic. (Democracy Index lists it as non-democratic "Hybrid regime")<br /><br />There are some better examples.<br /><br />LDP ruled Japan from 1955 to 1993. (13 elections)<br /><br />Social Democratic Party ruled Sweden 1936-1976 (10 elections).<br /><br />There's also Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico which ruled for 70 years, but Mexico isn't that terribly democratic either.tawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16972845140253292628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-65171099122271734552010-04-20T17:11:11.088+02:002010-04-20T17:11:11.088+02:00A quick visualization of your data shows a clump o...A quick visualization of your data shows a clump of 3 points at 35 - 37%, a big gap and then the main clump at 43 - 51%, then a few who are in the 53 - 60% range.<br /><br />An alternative explanation of the data is that democratic systems will tend towards a state in which there's always a good chance of the incumbent being overthrown. If that's the case, then every incumbent should be close to the minimum threshold of what it takes to be elected and it would explain the big gap between the 33% necessary to win in a 3 party system and the 50% for a 2 party system.<br /><br />Can you think of many counter-examples of true democratic systems with one party in power for more than 4 or 5 elections? Singapore is really the only example I can come up with. Australia came close during the Howard years but I don't think they made it to 5.Shalmanesehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11815101218462474784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-85052401423786523892010-04-20T17:05:46.852+02:002010-04-20T17:05:46.852+02:00Jamie: What kind of democratic legitimacy has a go...Jamie: What kind of democratic legitimacy has a government which is supported by only one third of the people?<br /><br />This Bloc getting far more seats while far fewer votes than NDP and/or PC thing is not a one off oddity but it happened every single time since 1993 when Bloc first took part in elections.<br /><br />It seems to be that elections in Canada are about as bad as in UK.<br /><br /><br />Quickshot: They're all first-past-the-post, but without politicians being in control of redistricting and other American style manipulations, so third parties are still present.<br /><br />UK based democracies also seem to experiment with single transferable vote / instant runoff quite often - which is somewhat less distorting than FPTP but more so than proportional representation. Elections for Mayor of London are held this way for example.<br /><br />It's quite possible UK might move to STV/IR instead of to proportionality in case of hung parliament (intrade rates that at 60%-ish). Of course if Tories win (30%-ish by Intrade), Democracy in UK is over.tawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16972845140253292628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-9627193850801061972010-04-20T16:52:14.912+02:002010-04-20T16:52:14.912+02:00Interesting the UK based democracies tend to all h...Interesting the UK based democracies tend to all have particular distortions to them. I guess they copied from the homeland in part.Quickshothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13365657025356806841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27488238.post-86722700299586192482010-04-20T16:48:11.702+02:002010-04-20T16:48:11.702+02:00Speaking as a Canadian, not getting majority suppo...Speaking as a Canadian, not getting majority support is a feature of a multi-party government.<br /><br />The 5 major parties in the 2008 election split the popular vote approx 35/25/20/10/5, preventing the Conservatives from simply pushing through whatever new laws they'd like (as is occasionally the case in the US when the Senate/House both have a majority of one party).<br /><br />Sure, we occasionally get oddities such as the NDP getting fewer seats than the Bloc despite having almost 2x the popular vote, but all told it's not that bad of a system.Jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06717185984617361218noreply@blogger.com