The problem with democracy... ...It hasnt been very democratic lately.

[Vindekarr]

Im posting this just as a general chat.

 

Earlier this year, in England, a Hung Parliment occured. This is when BOTH factions are so unpopular or the population is so divided that no clear party can be elected.

 

In the westminster system, you vote for a particular representative for your local "seat" they sit on the local parliment. Enough of such "seats" contribute to that partie's "score" whoever gets more has the majority, theorticaly, and you need a pretty big majority n Australia becuase parties are often prone to yelling at eachother more than their rivals.

 

Now, in the Australian Election yeserday, a hung parliment ensued. We dont know who our leader is yet, but it was preceded by all time lows for popularity and civic trust polls. With both sides at dismall sub 50% popularity and a turn to the minority parties. The campaign itself was a dirty one, with one politician punching a woman unconscious in public for "talking back to him" a campaign of streakers, of violence, of cheating, and even of accused vote rigging. Dirty tactics were the ONLY tactics on show.

 

Both parties were debuting leaders who werent entirely democraticaly ellected. Labour party head Julia Gillard siezed power by usting the prime minister mid term by in party machinations and plotting. Likwise for the coalition. Now, dirty tactics are common in politics, but this is getting ridiculous.

 

Right now australia's political future is in the hands of 8 inderpendants, some of them of very concerning views, as indies are, and these 8 men despite no loyalty to eachother hold the balance of power. this is a first in my lifetime, a country being ruled, due to the utter failure of their leaders, being led by a random cabal of extremists and "special interest" minority men.

 

Concerning? aye. Democracy? thats why Im posting this.

[ub3rman123]

We really need to start filming this, because it sounds like Politics would become the most popular reality show ever.

[Aurielius]

@Videnkarr

i hate to admit my ignorance but besides the basics I am not familiar with the political parties in Australia. Could you elucidate the differences between their respective positions? How many seats are required to win majority and out of what total numbers?

[grannywils]

Good questions, Aurielius. I, too, was reluctant to respond based on little or no knowledge of the Australian political system. This would be most helpful. It just never occured to me to ask. Duh... I'm suffering from sleep deprivation.

 

I will say though that democracy all over the world lately does seem to taking something of a hit, as stated in Vindekarr's original thread title. I suspect this may have something to do with the pendulum swing tendency of things in general. Right now we seem to be on a down swing over all. That is something of a rather broad generalization. Maybe tomorrow I'll be a little more articulate. At least I'll be more awake.

[Vindekarr]

I'll post some more info for you after lunch, in about an hour.

[brokenergy]

Now the two major parties in Australian politics are Liberals (Center-right) led by Tony Abbott and Labor (center-left) under Julia Gillard. To keep this short and sharp, both of these leaders took over from their last leaders in a secret ballot because they weren't popular with the public and both have a history with each other, (they both held the health portfolio in their respected parties). In Australia, there are 150 seats in the House of Representatives. In order to a majority to rule, you need at least 76 seats, but what has happened is that they both ran short of the 76 majority needed to govern. This has been replaced with three independence and a Green (left) MP and now the race has begun to woo, the independences in their respected side. Labor is at an advantage because it needs four more seats to govern in its own right while the Libs need five.

 

Since not many people know about the parties in Australian politics here is a short crash course.

 

Labor is the oldest major party in Australia and supports the lower class people and small business. Their main strengths are health, education and welfare while their weakness is immigration (which is tied into border security) and the economy. They won power in 2007 after 12 years of Lib rule and dissatisfaction on a range of issues such as the environment and the War in Iraq. Under their rule, troops withdrew, the Kyoto protocol was signed and steered the nation out of recession. The previous Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd had a very good popularity (highest in any PM) partly thanks to the previous leaders of the opposition and their incompetence to strike a fatal blow. What cause his downfall were a series of gaffs and policies which caused him to be replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard. The Labor party was able to rebound some votes but it was not enough to win again in its own right to govern.

 

The Liberal party was formed in the 1943 by Australia's longest serving PM, Sir Robert Menzies and are a center-right party who's main focus is small business. The Liberal party is sometimes known as the Lib-National coalition after their deal with the minor party known as the National party (another center-right who focus is on rural Australia). Their main strengths are immigration (which is again tied into border security) and the economy while they are weak in health, education and welfare. After their lost in 2007, the coalition had three leaders in four years with the longest being Tony Abbott's predecessor Malcolm Turnbull. In late 2009, Turnbull was able to strike a deal with Labor over the Emission's Trading Scheme, in order to tackle Climate Change. Before the vote in the Senate, Tony's supporters led a secret ballot where Tony one by one vote. With that, the Coalition became more aggressive and was able to take aim at Labor's record in government. Coupled with the gaffs and policies, the Coalition was able to claw back some of the vote but fell short of the 76 needed to govern.

 

The last party which I would like to add is The Greens. Founded in 1992 under Senator Bob Brown, The Greens became the fastest growing third party in Australia. It's a left leaning party, with the sole agenda of the environment/sustainable living and social wealth-fare. This party currently holds the balance of power in the Senate and could become a major power broker in Australian politics. The Greens in this election was the only party who had a differing policy against the major parties and could be a major hurdle for the government.

 

With that being said, Australia is on a knife-edge right now where three possibilities could happen:

 

1. Labor could come back to power in a minority government

 

2. The Coalition could rise and from a minority government

 

or

 

3. Australia would return to another election.

 

Lovely isn't it?

[Thor.]

One problem with that type of system is the lacks of party, here in Canada we have a six party system and We never had a problem like this, at least that i can recall, Maybe its about time they expanded and create more party's so there is more leeway.

 

the 2 party system does not work In my opinion. Especially when both party's are corrupt.

[brokenergy]

Actually Thor, there are at least 5 parties in Australia. Most of these parties are in the Senate not in the House of Reps.

[Thor.]

Well there is at least 4 party's that i would vote for if two of them went corrupt like that, lol the general public would not have such thing though, they would call for a election right away, and simply not vote for them. Its a popularity contest if you think about it. They almost have several times, as it dips and rises.

[brokenergy]

It's not about corruption, it's more about people are fed up with the major parties. Heck half the people I know voted for The Greens as a protest vote, which is stupid as they know nothing about their polities. That coupled with the plummeting state governments in the eastern states, which are Labor who have been in power for far too long. People don't seem to forget that there is a difference between state Labor and federal Labor.