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I’m skeptical that multiparty systems actually fix anything. Even when they work, it’s because poorly unaligned parties form coalitions on a largely unpredictab

I’m skeptical that multiparty systems actually fix anything. Even when they work, it’s because poorly unaligned parties form coalitions on a largely unpredictable basis, and the only hard and fast rule is that the largest minority party gets to choose the chancellor or PM, just like you would get with FPTP. In the worst cases, like in Israel and Belgium, it becomes impossible to form a stable majority coalition for years on end no matter how many snap elections you call. Also, the US has had a two party system for a very long time, and not all of that time was characterized by moralistic screeching whenever someone praised the “wrong” party on something like antitrust policy.

defrost 2y ago
You can be skeptical, they're still a viable alternative to the non representative duality the US has spiralled into. > Also, the US has had a two party system for a very long time, No doubt, that's one hallmark of that long slow spiral into a non representative deadlock. You likely recall the US founding founders opinions on political parties .. not a lot of fans as I recall (although admitedly I'm not a US citizen). The current voting system of the US has a tendancy to iteratively approach bad two party standoffs that better represent small powerful minority groups rather than the nations demographic as a whole. > just like you would get with FPTP. That's good to mention again; multiple parties and a change to one of the preferential ranking voting systems. There are multiple examples about the globe, some don't have deadlock issues .. and a stable majority coalition isn't a requirement to representationally vote on policy, and once passed, if passed, policy falls to the civil service in carry through.