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> Parliamentary systems are generally considered more stable Hm... Germany's system changed at least 3 times in the 20th century. France is on its Fifth Republ
by tomp 4y ago
> Parliamentary systems are generally considered more stable
Hm... Germany's system changed at least 3 times in the 20th century. France is on its Fifth Republic. Italy is a shitshow.
To me it seems that the oldest democracies (UK, US) are the most stable (even today!) and they're majority systems (first-past-the-post).
- kelseyfrog 4y agoTo actually do comparative politics, you need to regress over regimes not just call out counter examples. This is a quantitative problem, not a logic problem.
- tomp 4y agoNo, because I don't care about averages. I care about minimum, and maybe maximum. The worst case for representative democracy is literally Hitler. The second worst (you could argue that Hitler was a unique set of circumstances) is the dysfunctional German, Italian, or French states. The best case is probably Switzerland (party proportions barely change, I assume because the power of parliament is diminished because of elements of direct democracy that Swiss practice). What's the worst case for first-past-the-post democracy?
- kelseyfrog 4y agoThanks for being transparent. When I say stable, I'm referring to regime-years which is a standard way of operationalizing stability in comparative politics. It makes sense that if you're interested in things other than regime-years then most of what I have to share isn't going to be interesting to you.
- funcDropShadow 4y agoReplacing a prime minister after 6 weeks is an extremely short term, even for Italy. The current German constitution --- basic law to be precise -- has lasted twice as long as the previous German constitution. And its end doesn't appear on the horizon. The stability of the US system looked quite dire from the outside less than two years ago.
- tomp 4y ago> The stability of the US system looked quite dire from the outside less than two years ago. Only if you believe fake news media propaganda who equated "mostly peaceful protest" with "coup" (for real examples of a coup, look no further than Libya, Ukraine, or Myanmar; hint: it usually involves guns & people getting killed).
- funcDropShadow 4y agoPeople were killed in Washington.