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Named after a book "The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty"

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qnick

Is there a way to encourage coalitions larger than a simple majority? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/narrow

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Right now there's an incentive to juuust hit a majority in order to maximize a party's own appointments, so political systems with high fragmentation have government stability problems. Would there be a way to work around this? Could a parliament maybe do some of the work of a government directly, for example?

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[–] qnick 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If the coalition is larger than a majority, it turns into the one-party system, like China, North Korea or Russia. They don't have government stability problems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmm, I guess that is a concern, isn't it?

Maybe one more party than necessary should be the target. No brinksmanship causing perpetual crises, but if there's an actual issue multiple parties can break off. Party list is so beautiful and simple otherwise...

[–] qnick 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a classic concentration of power vs disperse of power problem. If you need efficiency and quick solutions, go with a "strong leader" or "strong party". If you need freedom, try to avoid one-party systems

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You know, I don't believe it is an either-or situation, at least completely. Autocracies are often inefficient, and it seems like it should be possible for parties to share power a single way until the next scheduled election.