this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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[–] jonne@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago (4 children)

In every country the biggest party would be the one that would at least get a first shot at forming a government.

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

And if the leader of the second biggest party would rather work with the third biggest party?

Then the biggest party could well remain out of government, because someone decided that a different coalition would form the government.

The virtue of a two party popular vote is that once the votes are counted there is a clear winner determined by the voters, and nobody can change the winner behind the scenes.

[–] friendlymessage 4 points 2 months ago

As long as the coalition represents the majority, I don't see why the largest party needs to be part of the government. The largest party doesn't represent the will of the people by itself, otherwise they would have a majority.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yes, that ends up happening sometimes, but the winner will at least be allowed to try.

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Coalition building happens in a two party system, too. The difference is that it happens before the election, not after. That way the voters, not the coalition builders, get the final say.

[–] friendlymessage 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In a two party system the power balance within the coalition is decided behind closed doors and the voters have no say in it

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's true, but they have complete control of who wins the election.

[–] friendlymessage 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Two choices is not complete control

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The winner of the election reflects the will of the majority of voters. That's the most control you can get in a democracy.

[–] friendlymessage 1 points 2 months ago

Lol, sure it does

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

They did. They proposed a candidate and she wasn't accepted.

[–] friendlymessage 4 points 2 months ago

Counter examples exist. Willy Brandt was social-democratic German chancellor in a coalition with the liberals while the conservatives were the biggest party in parliament. The conservatives could only watch.

Also recent state elections in Thuringia, the fascist AfD is the biggest party but nobody wants to work with them, so they don't get a chance to form a government.

What's important in both cases: the majority of voters want it that way. They wanted a social-democratic+liberal government under Willy Brandt and there is a clear majority in Thuringia that don't want the AfD to govern. In both cases it's more democratic to not let the biggest party govern.

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Check Poland's last parliamentary election.

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The United Right alliance placed first for the third straight election and won a plurality of seats but fell short of a Sejm majority. The opposition, consisting of the Civic Coalition, Third Way, and The Left, achieved a combined total vote of 54%, managing to form a majority coalition government.

So exactly the opposite of what you said.

The party with the largest number or seat didn't get to make a government and the largest coalition who managed to get a majority of seats did.

[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They did get thay opportunity from the president. The prime minister didn't get a vote of confidence after a month of trying to pull a majority together. But they did get a chance, unlike french left.

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

Oh so a right wing president tried to push a right wing PM against a majority left leaning parliament disregarding the vote result and failed ?

You have weird notions of what makes good governance.