Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/03/pirate-party-invited-to-form-i.html
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Are we sure they’re not setting them up for failure with a non majority and perhaps the inability to form a working coalition?
God - Donny has made me even more cynical.
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Let’s hope the pirate party members have read some Machiavelli, or Sun Tzu or anyone ever who described what to do with power, and how to keep power.
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Yes, Donny Tinyhands has done that to me too (temporarily, I hope).
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A fascinating experiment. I trust few politicians or power seekers of nay sort but these people may actually be honest.
I shall be curious to see how this plays out once they slam into the realities of a very complex and corrupt world.
I can’t see this working on any semi-large country though. Iceland has less people than many America cities.
Direct democracy is too subject to the "whim of the day’ and the “bread and circuses” crowds who think everything should be free.
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Yes, people constantly demanding lower taxes really fucks things up for everyone else.
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Wednesday Addams smiling just doesn’t look right.
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Hip! Hip! Argh!
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This could make for an excellent new series of Borgen.
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It’s not about quantity of people.
It’s about dominant ideology.
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Sure, once you have a sufficiently large enough group of people the only system that works effectively is a first past the post presidential system.
That’s working out great for you guys, right?
It would be a disaster if the two major US parties had to work with smaller parties with more marginal interests and everyone had to compromise.
Who would be Lord Emperor in that scenario? No one! Crazy!
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This isn’t direct democracy - this is just what happens when a country with an electoral system capable of electing minor parties/third parties hits a critical threshold of disillusionment with the major parties, and they vote for representatives from other parties. If the US had preference voting, even just for Congress, you’d probably see this sort of thing happening there too, although probably not straight to a “minor” party getting a significant chunk of votes and being in a position to attempt to form government.
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Switzerland (pop. 8M) uses direct democracy for nearly everything of importance. They have low voter turnout for federal elections because people there largely don’t think it matters which of the relatively competent stewards they choose for the country. It is not known for it’s slashing of taxes or having a collapsing economy. It is known for chocolate, watches, and staying out of wars.
Maybe direct democracy can work just fine.
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Almost obligatory.
Let’s just hope they use the rope they’ve been given wisely instead of hanging themselves with it.
If you click through to the actual article, it sounds like they’re unlikely to succeed, and Iceland is going to have another election soon. Both the big left and right parties already had a go at trying to create a coalition. They’re the 3rd largest with only 15% of the votes.
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