Comments on: Belgium: No Government 150 Days after Elections

By: davod

davod — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:21:57 +0000

The Australian use proportional voting in their elections, and yes this has caused dingbats to get elected. The green party had the swing vote in the Senate at one time.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:53:13 +0000

You mean the same as most any parliamentary democracy.

Most of the major ones - UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia -- use some sort of double ballot system, first past the post single member districts, minimum ceilings, or other institutional means to force the emergence of large parties who can win majorities or at least easily dominate coalitions.

By: davod

davod — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:50:43 +0000

"There’s a price to be paid for electoral systems with large numbers of ideological, regional, and ethnic parties."

You mean the same as most any parliamentary democracy.

By: Triumph

Triumph — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:46:42 +0000

This would be a great time to invade them. They would never know what hit them and we could have all the free Leffe we could drink! Damn the Walloon-Flemish evildoers!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:47:33 +0000

Not having a president and Congress for 150 days - now that is a beautiful thought - 150 days, isn't that about how many days Congress has off a year here in the US - maybe we could bump it up to 364 days a year or so.