4 ms·

Lib dems are always an insignificant bit-part. They got 7.4% of the votes at the last election and 1.9% of the seats. Smaller parties like the green party do e

• chrisseaton 6y ago
  > Lib dems are always an insignificant bit-part ... Smaller parties like the green party do even worse. Smaller parties... like the SNP? 7% of the seats from 4% of the vote. Seems to fly in the face of what everyone says about what is possible under FPTP. And what's more they've been effective in influencing what happens in parliament!
  • amiga_500 6y ago
    Most of the time it converges on two parties. Here's the "law": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law So you might think it's possible. But it's a case of in theory, in theory and in practice are the same, in practice, they ain't. And that is what FPTP is designed for. To over-reward those at the top of the leaderboard. It's designed to not be representative.
  • xnyan 6y ago
    >And what's more they've been effective in influencing what happens in parliament! It's actually not that different in practice There are a large range on views in both parties, but you put on the Democratic or Republican label in order to build a majority coalition. This is sort of like how the Westminster parliamentary system works: labor forms a government with the greens. Labor has more seats by far is and is mostly in charge, but the greens get some government positions and a little influence on the agenda of state. As a recent example of this here Bernie Sanders was not at all a Democratic party member but "joined" with them to try and get enough support.