[Am-info] Re: Political Parties

[sturde@az.com]

In <20011107170101.C9A0929BA4@lists.essential.org>, on 11/07/01 
   at 12:01 PM, am-info-request@venice.essential.org said:

>Parliamentary systems provide disproportionate power to small parties, 
>encouraging their proliferation. Our system tends to do the opposite.

In America it is winner take all in elections.  In Germany (and I defer to
Felmon on this) I believe a minority party has to obtain at least 5% of
total vote before it is entitled to representation in the Bundestag.  A
terrible example is Israel.  There it is strict proportional
representation.  It is hard to elect a majority government of one party. 
There has to be coalition building, which allows some of the real crazies
in Israel to exercise power way, way, way out of proportion to majority
wishes.

James Sturdevant


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sturde@az.com

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