Posted on 06/29/2005 10:57:47 PM PDT by familyop
==This is typical scare mongering and russophobia.
Russia and China's anti-American posture is becoming increasingly difficult to defend, don't you think?:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1434721/posts
"The Kremlin-controlled United Russia party holds two thirds of seats in the Duma, enough to pass legislation single-handedly."
I am not aware of any efforts in the US to ban third parties or third pary candidates. The vast majority of third party candidates lose, but they are not prevented from running. Putin's Unity party is attempting to ban third parties altogether.
jb6 writes "Typical Lie. The other parties have and equal chance"
(From article) "If introduced, the changes, proposed by President Vladimir Putin, would ban political parties merging into blocs to stand in elections..."
Maybe I'm missing something, but it certainly sounds like Putin is trying to ban third parties to me.
No he's banning parties unifying into blocks so that when you vote say democrat the socialists and greens also get your vote automatically. We have the exact same system.
Got the same thing in Poland.
Or how many third party Congressmen are there? Five?
In proportional voting system the percentage tresholds are almost necessary.
"No he's banning parties unifying into blocks so that when you vote say democrat the socialists and greens also get your vote automatically. We have the exact same system."
Please explain how we have the "exact same system."
==Got the same thing in Poland.
Poland bans small parties and independent candidates as well?
"Or how many third party Congressmen are there? Five?"
The point is, we have them. This is what they are trying to ban in Russia, and, if I understand your last post correctly, they have already done this in Poland.
To get into Sejm (Seym - Polish Diet or Parliament) you must have at least a certain percentage of the votes.
The purpose is to eliminate smaller parties. In proportional system of voting it is needed in order to prevent chaos and frequent changes of government. Similar tresholds are in Italy, Germany and other countries.
In countries with majority voting (USA, UK) even the third parties (not speaking about the forth of fifth) have great difficulty to enter the parlament. Fixed minorities are not represented at all unless they are segregated geografically (like Welsh in UK or blacks in some US districts). With majority system of voting you do not need tresholds to eliminate smaller parties.
Very few. For practical purposes the smaller parties have less chance in majoritarian system (US, UK etc) than in proportional systems with the treshold.
It means that Greens/Reform etc cannot run as a block . They either become one party or run separate.
No, if they do not get above the treshold they will not get any seats.
You see, the sleight of hand is word "effectively" in the deceptive phrase: "which effectively bar small parties".
"No, if they do not get above the treshold they will not get any seats."
What is the "threshhold" one must meet before qualifying for a seat?
I do not know the details of this plan. In Poland, the party has to have at least 5% and parties with the highest percentages get extra seats.
Otherwise in proportional system you get miriad of parties and very unstable governments. (It used to be so in Italy)
"Otherwise in proportional system you get miriad of parties and very unstable governments."
But was that really a problem in Russia?
Also, do you think the Kremlin is trying to tighten its grip (as the subtitle of this post implies)? Or do you think this is an innocent move on the part of Putin/Unity?
Yes. Russia was in chaos worse that France before founding of the Fifth Republic by Charles de Gaulle.
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