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Politics : Support the French! Viva Democracy! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (2259)	7/30/2003 4:28:15 AM
From: 49thMIMOMander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7834

One key word is _WITH_ 1. the majorities rule 2. with 3. the consensus of the minorities That is, the majorities rule only through the consent of the minorities. Similar to what some american said in terms of the rulers and the ones ruled over. However, when the government, which rules, is formed through coalitions which in general include the minor parties, minor parties who are capable of cooperation also "get to rule". With a center-based consensus system the minor parties are not necessarily needed in difference to socalled 2-block systems, this avoids that the small parties can "blackmail" the larger ones in the coalition forming process (especially when a minimum of a 50% majority is needed for the coalition forming the government) That is, in a multy-party-center-based-consensus-system: - there are 3 major blocks, right-left-center - small parties here and there, some extremeist, some less The key-mechanism is that a 50% government coalition can be formed in many ways, some with, some without the small parties. That is, neither the major nor the minor parties can "blackmail" the others, instead most of them will at some partipicipate in a coalition with the others. For example, assuming a typical 20-20-20 to 30-30-30% distribution between right-center-left (small parties thus 40% down to 10%, the system "breathes") right+center(+some small parties) center+left(+some small parties) right+small parties center+small parties left+small parties as well as right+left(+seom small parties) with the center in opposition The procedure to form a governing coalition is started by either the largest party or one of the major parties wich has gained most in the election. Other parties join the coalition according to a negotiated government-program until a 50% coalition-majority is reached, that is, support from the parliament. If that support is not reached on all issues in the government-program that governement will probably lose the (50%) support of the parliement at some point and a new government coalition must be formed (no need for US style midterm "impeachment" processes against the president and his administration) That is, a _consensus_ system to make the existence of small parties possible, favoring those who can cooperate (in the long run) within the governing coalitions. Additionally a system which can make small (or large) adjustments to the policies of the government and where most parties as well as politicians have, or will, at some point cooperate with most others. That is, not an _adversarial_ system (one party fighting the other one, have always and will always), which attempts to go full speed right or left, with little continuity over time and elections. (ref longer terms for US senate and partial elections "for both houses" plus the matter of if one party has both houses and president, just one house and the president)