Some things I dislike about what I saw in Italy's system:
* It gives small parties disproportionate amounts of power at times: "do what we say or we leave the coalition and the government falls".
* It gives parties disproportionate power, since they pick the candidates on their lists.
* I think have a person represent a geographic area and be beholden to it has some benefits.
Mostly, it's the government stability problem, as lots of fractious parties, some of which are personal projects rather than longer-term movements just don't offer much continuity.
Re:Andrew Yang to launch a third party
by Ericson2314 on Friday September 10, 2021 @01:41PM
(#28484840)
Replacing "Joe Manchin" with "small coalition partner" still sounds like an improvement :).
The US has plenty of defects too. Not sure what really stands out as a good one to me that exists in the real world. Australia seems to have some good bits...but maybe that's just because I'm not familiar with it.
Re:Andrew Yang to launch a third party
by Ericson2314 on Friday September 10, 2021 @05:13PM
(#28486952)
Parliamentary systems with proportional representation, but the research does show they are better over all --- both theoretical and empirical. The situation in Italy is unfortunate, but I don't think it is a good reason for the US to rest on its laurels.
Which political problems in Italy do you think would go away if they switched to a less proportional system? Wouldn't the same divisions and deal-making just end up happening within parties rather than between parties?