The September 14 New York Times has this article, which suggests that Great Britain’s coalition government (between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party) has lasted longer, and been more successful, than expected. No party got a majority of the seats in the last House of Commons election, so the government depends on alliance of one of the two major parties, and Britain’s largest third party.
In the United States, one must go all the way back to 1930 to find an election in which neither major party held a majority in the U.S. House. The various minor parties that elected members of the U.S. House in 1930 formed a coalition with the Democratic Party, to elect the House speaker.
My guess is the success of the coalition will be measured by just what happens to the LibDems in the next election.
1930 must have been a good year for democratic elections here in the United States, despite, or perhaps because of, the Great Depression. I wish voters these days were as open minded and elected a few third parties to Congress. Who knows come 2014? There’s been quite a bit of controversy involving our government recently…
Actually, after my curiosity caused me to do a little research, 1930 was part of an entire good age for democratic elections here in America. So many third party candidates getting 10, 20, 30 percent of the vote, even winning a few seats. Nowadays though, nearly all third party and independent candidates get less than 10 percent of the vote. What a sobering trend indeed.
The EVIL and VICIOUS minority rule gerrymanders in the UK are even worse than in the USA due to the multiple larger parties in each UK MP gerrymander district.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
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The Donkeys and Elephants conspired to raise ballot access requirements for third parties in the 1930s to stop any third party reforms/threats to the established regimes
In 1930 ballot access was a lot more fair. The reason we don’t see more “Third” parties winning elections now is because we don’t have anything approaching free elections.
Can I just point out that while we have an unsatisfactory First past the post system in the UK we do NOT have gerrymandering in the US sense. That situation may not last – but its where we are at the moment.
As to the coalition – it has survived much longer than most people expected (though I never understood why people thought that way). Whether it has been successful for the country is another matter.
The Lib Dems will certainly take a caning at the next election – but I’m not sure that will be a kick at the coalition if the result is a Conservative majority. The result may well be another hung parliament – but with local nationalists and ulster unionists in the mix alongside the remaining Lib Dems.