11mo ago

Proportional Representation is Stable

27 comments

South African here, we also have proportional representation, along with free and fair elections. It is not a magic bullet, we have been dominated by a single party for the last 30 years (since the end of apartheid and the dawn of democracy), so unless your population is educated and doesn't blindly vote out of loyalty.
But I still agree that proportional representation, even in its worst outcomes, is for me the fairest government, I really feel like my vote will count, especially in the last election in May where the ANC finally fell below 50% and had to go into a coalition government.
- You also have rampant corruption I'm pretty sure
  So yes, this alone won't help
  
  Wasn't always the case, corruption will always be present in any government. Ours got out of hand when our "FBI", called the Scorpions, decided not to prosecute Zuma when he was VP for corruption, if he steps down. So he stepped down and behind the scenes won the ANC party's presidency and then gained Presidency, using a Stalingrad legal tactic to indefinitely delay legal responsibility. Then he claimed political prosecution and the use of the Scorpions as proof and disbanded them. That basically was the fall of accountability in South Africa and what followed we now call the nine lost years and entrenched corruption. Zuma was a charismatic leader that used the presidency to protect himself from legal prosecution and to further enrich himself. Even now with Commissions into corruption like the Zondo State Capture Commission finding many individuals engaged in corrupt activities with black and white evidence, we haven't seen any real legal ramifications or really any convictions.

FPTP is weird. Really.
- I would say stupid... or antiquated... but yes weird works too...

5 out of 6 have a cross in their flag, too, perhaps that is the real reason.
- Petition to change the flag to test your hypothesis:

Ireland? Stable?!
- no trouble at all
- The Republic of Ireland is quite stable, Northern Ireland on the other hand…
- Could I ask for more context?

'in the world'?

All of these countries have majority populations of white Europeans mostly descended from locals... which is to say that they each have a majority population that is of one ethnic and sociocultural background which they have shared for hundreds (or thousands) of years. Their internal social stability has a lot more to do with the historical momentum of their population having primarily shared interests and culture than it does with their method of voting.
- Bro nationalism hasn't been cool since before WWII, stop being the loser that keeps trying to make it happen.
  
  Nationalism is what you got from what I wrote? Did you read it at all?
- It'S tHe ImMiGrAnTs' FaUlT iF wE cAn'T hAvE nIcE tHiNgS!
  Fuck off Nazi 🖕
- 1/4 of the swiss population are immigrants, not including naturalized immigrants. And most countries have a majority population...what exactly is the argument there?
- Surprised by so many downvotes for this, its a fairly accurate observation. I dont see how this promotes or demotes anything.
  
  It's mostly because this has been a go-to response by Americans in topics about some European countries doing significantly better than the US: "It's because they don't have black people".

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