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I imagine that this thread may sound somewhat "strange" for Americans...
Americans have that 'big tent' approach to politics though, where people like David Duke and black leaders can both run for the Republican ticket and Republicans in liberal areas are more liberal than Democrats in Conservative areas!
There's probably more different opinions actually within the Republican and Democrat parties alone than there is in the whole UK parliament...
We've got three main parties but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have some of their own parties as well, plus there are a few minor parties which occasionally get a seat. Our electoral system is biased in favour of the bigger parties so that usually only one party forms a government, but last time round the Conservatives didn't get a clear majority so had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The 2010 election results were as follows:
Conservative - 307 seats
Labour - 258
Liberal Democrats - 57
Democratic Unionists - 8
Scottish National Party - 6
Sinn Fein - 5
Plaid Cymru - 3
Social Democratic and Labour Party - 3
Green - 1
Alliance Party - 1
Others - 1
The composition of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (Camara dos Deputados):
Workers' Party (PT) - left wing, the party of president Dilma Rousseff - 86 deputies
Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) - centrist, supports the government - 78 deputies
Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) - center-right, opposition to the government - 50 deputies
Social Democratic Party (PSD) - "independent" party, founded in 2011, it's neither opposition nor governist - 48 deputies
Progressive Party (PP) - center-right, supports the government (yeah, that's right, they are a right wing party, but support the left wing government - it's Brazil, people!) - 38 deputies
Party of the Republic (PR) - centrist, used to support the government, until a minister from the party was fired because of corruption, then became "independent" - 36 deputies
Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) - left-wing, supports the government - 29 deputies
Democrats (DEM) - right-wing (may sound strange for Americans ), opposition to the government - 27 deputies
Democratic Labour Party (PDT) - left-wing, supports the government - 27 deputies
Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) - center-left, supports the government - 20 deputies
Social Christian Party (PSC) - ideology: nobody knows, supports the government - 17 deputies
Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) - left-wing, supports the government - 13 deputies
People's Socialist Party (PPS) - left-wing, opposition to the government (yeah, that's right ) - 11 deputies
Brazilian Republican Party (PRB) - ideology: no need for that, supports the government - 10 deputies
Green Party (PV) - "independent" - 10 deputies
There are 8 other minor parties, with a total of 13 deputies.
^^ Sounds REALLY complicated, particularly all those initials mostly beginning with P! Do these parties know how to cooperate with each other?
The letter "P" comes from the word "Partido" (Party).
Basically, some parties are supporters of the government, some parties are opposition to the government, and a few are "independent" (may support the government some times, and oppose it in other ocasions - some people say that some of those independent parties make decisions based on what the government has to "offer" to them )
The letter "P" comes from the word "Partido" (Party).
Basically, some parties are supporters of the government, some parties are opposition to the government, and a few are "independent" (may support the government some times, and oppose it in other ocasions - some people say that some of those independent parties make decisions based on what the government has to "offer" to them )
But does having all those different small parties together generally result in a functioning government which can get things done though? It probably wouldn't work here as our parties are not used to having to compromise as much, though the coalition we've had for the last two years has worked more smoothly than a lot of people predicted at first.
Theres 8 in Denmark. But again its all due to proportional representation vs plurality voting system. I really find the PVS undemocratic in a way since alot of votes just go down the drain. You could have a 0.1% difference and still one get all the seats/mandates from that region/state. I really think votes should reflect the opinion of the country as a whole vs the opinion of the majority of people in regions added together....
Independent (former Conservative, now libertarian of some sort): 1
The Conservatives also form the majority in the Canadian Senate, which is the upper house and functions similarly to the British House of Lords. It is not really like the US Senate. The real power in Canada is in the House of Commons.
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- 48 deputies
- 36 deputies
) - 11 deputies
- 10 deputies
)
