LogFAQs > #958237791

adjl posted...

By and large, I do actually like minority governments. There are some disadvantages, certainly, particularly in that the opposition has an official duty to basically say "no lol" any time the leading party suggests something and that interferes with getting anything big/decisive done, but ensuring that a more diverse set of viewpoints has a voice in Parliament is generally a good thing and leads to more well-rounded policies than what happens if one side can just push through whatever they want.

The only thing I dislike about minority governments is how unstable they are which itself is also a product of first-past-the-post, given that a change of a few percentage points in the polls can change the ruling party from being in the minority to either being in majority territory (incentivizing them to call an election - incidentally why we're having one today) or being out of power altogether (incentivizing the opposition to call a vote of no confidence and force an election).

I would be far more comfortable with a Proportional Representation system. Yes, it would be perpetual minority government, but I don't look at that as terrible, largely for the same reasons you brought up here and it would do away with the instability that plagues the current system. This is especially true given that minority governments seem to be growing more common these days as the proportion of the population that could be considered swing voters shrinks and political alignments solidify.

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