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army1987 comments on Politics is hard mode - Less Wrong Discussion

27 Post author: RobbBB 21 July 2014 10:14PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 23 July 2014 11:49:07AM 1 point [-]

A more precise description of the Italian system is: if the centre-right coalition comprises 40% of the parliament, the centre-left coalition comprises 45% of the parliament, and the lone contrarian party comprises 15% of the parliament, then the lone contrarian party gets to decide everything (except questions on which the centre-right coalition and the centre-left coalition agree, which aren't likely to be voted on in the parliament in the first place) without needing to be in a coalition, and hence without needing to be sane enough to be in a coalition. (BTW, nobody actually likes the centre-right coalition or the centre-left coalition: people vote for the centre-right coalition just because they dislike the centre-left coalition and don't want it to get a plurality of seats and vice versa.)

(I'm not familiar with German politics so I don't know what prevents this dynamic from occurring there too.)

Comment author: B_For_Bandana 23 July 2014 11:38:34PM 0 points [-]

then the lone contrarian party gets to decide everything

How often do the center-right and center-left coalitions look the crazy thing the lone contrarian party wants to do, go "lol, nope" and make a centrist compromise with each other? Is that possible/common?

Comment author: [deleted] 24 July 2014 08:12:25AM 0 points [-]

That was covered by “except questions on which the centre-right coalition and the centre-left coalition agree” but Nornagest said it better.