Mexico held presidential and congressional elections on July 1. Seven parties won seats in the lower house of Congress. See this story. Mexico uses proportional representation for elections to the lower house of Congress.
No session of the U.S. House of Representatives has ever had as many as seven parties represented. The Congress elected in 1914, as well as the one elected in 1916, had five nationally-organized parties represented: Democratic, Republican, Progressive, Socialist, and Prohibition. No Congress since then has had representatives from that many parties.
What is the world record for P.R. regimes ???
10 parties ??? More ??? — along with any independents.
World War I killed lots of *reforms* in the U.S.A.
i.e. the EVIL minority rule gerrymanders control by the EVIL Donkeys/Elephants.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V. — before it is too late.
More Mexicans than Americans got a representative more closely aligned with their politics get elected. That is a boast. The other side of the coin is how majority coalitions are determined in legislative chambers and our neighbors might not be that much superior, if at all, than here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_general_election,_2010
A mere TEN parties won P.R. seats.
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BUT — Major ROT in ALL parlimentary regimes — same party hacks having both legislative and executive powers.
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A new election will happen in Sept 2012 due to such ROT.