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When only 2 parties take turns ruling the country, the checks and balances don't really work well when stressed. Because the party that needs to be checked, control half the apparatus, and can disrupt large parts of the other half.
Countries with maybe 10+ parties in parlament like many European countries have, will never have a single party with control of half the apparatus responsible for the checks and balances.
This is a huge reason first past the post is bad for democracy, apart from also not representing the population as fairly as is possible with numerous parties of influence.
This problem permeates throughout the entirety of the system, including the judicial, where judges belong to one or the other party, enabling an imbalance with total control for one party in for instance the supreme court.
With a multi party system, a single party would NOT be able to take control in the way we have seen happen in USA, which obviously shouldn't be possible, and also doesn't help to prevent corruption.
I would love to be able to vote for a true leftist party in America. They will never allow it though.
Four states don't use first-past-the-post for legislative elections. In particular:
If a third party wanted to succeed, they would put significant resources into winning legislative and congressional seats in those places. I don't see any of them actually doing that though.
Why don’t more states abandon first-past-the-post?
Massachusetts tried last time and the ballot initiative failed.
Rcv is "new and scary" peoples resistance to change will always make them shit on things they dont understand. The only solution is to have more of us then there are of them.
There were ads running against it and the arguments were nonsense, but there was nothing from the pro side. It was like they expected* the electorate to just know that it was better and didn't think a campaign was needed.
*Expected, not requested
Mostly because the progressives didn't control them in the early 1900s, so they don't have legislature-bypassing initiatives, and even in states where you do have that, it's expensive to get one through.
So disappointing. I feel like things will never change.
Political change tends to be like that — nothing at all for a long period when you don't have the power to act, and sudden rapid change when you do.
It feels like we’re on the cusp of something big happening, for better or for worse.
Something worse probably and I am an optimist.
On the upside they could change for the worse. Maybe instead of fair elections the chang is a god king
Because the parties with the power don't want to, because it might cost them power.
They're not designed to win, they're designed to offset whoever they're turned against.