Thresholds for parties… October 8, 2014
Posted by WorldbyStorm in European Politics.trackback
I was struck by the way in which the Swedish system predicates against independents. It’s not entirely clear if it is entirely impossible to be an independent, but the Riksdag has a 4% threshold nationally for political “parties”, and 12% in constituencies can’t help. There appear to be some local ‘parties’ that have an independent characteristic, but any information on this is gratefully accepted. In a way it is fascinating how few polities appear to have independents. The fact that they have waxed and waned in this polity is actually quite remarkable. Like them or loathe them – and in truth they represent such a broad spectrum of political ideas and dynamics that it is arguably reductionist to see them all simply as ‘independents’, they are an organic expression of political activity in this state.
I suspect that we may hear calls from some quarters for that if the next round of government formation becomes deeply problematic, from the perspective of a smooth transition with relatively little horse-trading, in 2015/16. Though Article 16 of the Constitution presumably would stymie such calls, wouldn’t it?
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Independents are very unusual in the EP. Except in the UK lot. They would be considered somewhat enviable and a little alarming. Also the subject of some admiration should they prevail. I have met many who should be independent too. Confronting Pary leaders for instance would get one in big trouble with the lists!
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So Nessa – what is the ” Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats” going to do to protect us against the latest encroachment of totalitarian capitalism in the form of CETA/TTIP & TISA.
What’s your position? How will you vote?
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I see that you made an intervention on TTIP:
‘Most important’!?
How about closed courts of a parallel justice system that would make illegal democratic decisions taken at the local, regional, national and supranational level that a corporation deemed to impact it’s profits?
If this goes through then the likes of Farcebook, Scroogle and other Five Eyes-compliant corporations would have carte blanche to ‘compromise citizens’ personal data’ if that’s where their profits originate.
I suspect I’m commenting into a vacuum, however.
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Nessa
Just wondering how seriously your political group took your views on the Irish Commissioner?
Did they vote against him?
Did they protest about his legal harassment of you?
Unless you can correct me, the answer to the questions are not at all, no, and no.
So, do independents in the European Parliament have any impact at all?
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Hm.. I’m not sure. The insistence on Parties means that candidates have to at least stand for something other than local patronage. In Germany the threshold meant the neo-Nazis were excluded from the Parliament in the last election.
I don’t think one could argue that the plethora of ‘Independents’ in the South of Ireland is any sign of political health.
As were the explicitly neoliberal party (as opposed to de facto neo-liberals in CDU/CSU/SPD) the FDP. The ruling realo wing of the German Greens (I kid you not) are now moving to occupy the space left by the FDP.
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It’s true, other polities have very few independents; conversely, the Irish whip system seems among the most Draconian – UK, US politicians regularly ‘rebel’ (UK) or vote across party lines (US) without sanction.
It’s hard to imagine a Dail counterpart to the vote Cameron lost over Syria, since we don’t face such issues, but it’s hard to see any Taoiseach surviving a defeat on an issue in which s/he was so invested.
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If I recall, at least in the UK parliamentary system the coming into existence of the Irish Party ‘whip’ system in the 19th century was an unusual innovation which led to their real emergence as a powerbroker in Westminster.
I’m guessing some evolution of that (or the two halves of the ‘National Movement’ retaining their discipline from the revolutionary period) is responsible… though maybe someone else can comment further?
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Looking at the Swedish Electoral Authority’s website unearths the following:
That makes it sound like there really isn’t a barrier to independents in the technical sense as they can just start a micro-party in order get themselves on the ballot paper, so to speak. Although the website muddies the water with this quote:
An unusual barrier to micro-parties and independents though is the fact that the parties have to print there own ballot papers, with those having gotten less than 1% of the vote at the previous election having to pay for them. I remember hearing, I can’t remember where though, that they were expecting 50 million ballot papers to be printed for the recent general election because of this arraignment, absolute madness.
http://www.val.se/sprak/engelska/general_information/4_parties_and_ballot_papers/index.html
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their own*
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That’s bizarre re the ballot papers.
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Aye, for all the rigidity that the thresholds, and the modified Sainte-Laguë method used in pace of D’hondt, provide you can’t help but think that there is something deeply anarchic about how elections work in Sweden. When I was writing about the European elections I noted that 3 votes were cast for Jesus and 2 votes each for Batman and Donald Duck, properly bizarre that!
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Germany’s constitutional court found thresholds for the European Parliament elections unconstitutional, hence the bestiality party got a seat. *
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/germanys-top-court-annuls-3-threshold-eu-election-300927
Was quite offended by the reactions of the larger parties in the article such as the SPD & CDU/CSU. They opposed the ruling citing “stability” & “fragmentation”. I think if you have enough votes you should be entitled to be elected without having an artificial barrier which only benefits larger parties.
At the end of the day you can’t beat PR-STV. Our voting system is the one thing we can be proud of.
* I make zero apologies for my profound dislike of animal rights groups such as PETA, SHAC, SPEAK, ALF, BUAV (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/07/animal-rights-uk-newspapers-buav) & those two parties that won seats in the Netherlands and Germany.
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That’s an article that passed me by. Thanks for the link. I think there’s an overwhelming argument for treating animals well and without cruelty. I also tend to the view that those that exhibit higher levels of sentience need particular protections. But I’d have issues with at least some of those organisations on the list you give.
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Have zero problem with treating animals wells and regulating and legislating for such an endpoint. Vast majority of citizens would agree. However a lot of animal rights groups go way too far. My opposition to them would boil down to three points.
1. I’m a supporter of rural pursuits such as fox hunting and coursing.
2. In terms of scientific research there is still a need to use animals. Example which I’m most familiar with is toxicology & PK studies for drug testing before you even think about giving it to humans. In genetics we can identify genes which can cause diseases or cancer using transgenic animals (mainly fruit flies or mice). There are cell models available but they’re still in the development phase & they’re next to useless where you need information on complex diseases such as PD.
Half the time testing using animals involves taking bloods – not vivisection, which is really just a buzzword at this stage. The use of animals is regulated & universities and research labs have policies in place regarding the use of animals. (https://www.tcd.ie/BioResources/licence-ethical/introduction/)
3. I find the idea of “total animal liberation” to be an insane one – why on earth should we give similar or equal rights to organisms who are essentially trapped in a cycle of mating, feeding, killing & repeating (yeah know its a Slipknot album title).
PETA are a total joke between financing ALF members, their downright offensive & bizarre PR campaign and killing 90% of animals left at its shelters. I reckon its a rather expensive false flag operation initiated by the fur industry. I’m glad the more nuttier and prominent SHAC & SPEAK members are in prison.
One thing which ground my gears recently were the protests against euthanizing María Teresa Ramos’s dog Excalibur, due to the Ebola transmission risk. 8,000 people have died so far in West Africa (probably more), the response from Western governments could’ve been far better & people are protesting about some stupid mutt. Makes me wish for a full scale Ebola epidemic in the West.
Apologies for going majorly off topic here.
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