MMP has failed - Politics and the new era
MMP has failed.
Okay, I voted for MMP. It was a rush of blood to the head in an effort to do what parliament (well Labour in the 80s) had been doing to the rest of us, that is restructure them. Like all liberals I qualified my support, 'well it does make parties stronger, but it's still going to give more control to voters than we have now'. You know liberal bollocks stuff.
What I spose has surprised me is that it's not the parties that have been the problem with MMP but the voters. You see I mistakenly thought that people would think tactically. What I didn't realise, and I should have, is that people really don't care, so tactical considerations are really just irrelevant.
MMP has failed because every time a small party is constructive it gets it whacked. Voters insist on voting for these small, often pretend, parties but only vote for them again if they are noisy, oppositional, and generally negative. New Zealand First in 96, the Alliance in 99 and and United Future in 02 are suffering the same fate - voter approbation because they were constructive. (Yeah I know United isn't part of the government but supports Labour on confidence and supply, and yeah NZ First and the Alliance did misbehave at the end but only because they had disappeared to below 2 per cent in polls and the horses bolted.)
When MMP was coming in there was talk of either the German system, where voters congregate around 2 large and one small party, and the Italian system where, at the time there had been 51 governments since the war. I have these horrid middle of the night flashbacks where I wake up in a cold sweat recalling a passionate argument I had, at a particularly messy party, with an anti MMP person and I said the Italian system would never happen here,..... and on the basis of my persuasion they changed their mind and voted for MMP. I wouldn't be so horrified except that it's about the only time I've succeeded in changing someone's mind.
Now there may be those of you who read this and say... 'it doesn't matter'. And well it does. The economic growth and stability we enjoy is about stable reliable government. Clark and Labour, despite all their faults, and misguided policy have made a one vote majority on supply and confidence look stable.
And as we head towards Bad Decision 05 ....of course while the electorate is guilty, so too is Labour.
More on that later.
Okay, I voted for MMP. It was a rush of blood to the head in an effort to do what parliament (well Labour in the 80s) had been doing to the rest of us, that is restructure them. Like all liberals I qualified my support, 'well it does make parties stronger, but it's still going to give more control to voters than we have now'. You know liberal bollocks stuff.
What I spose has surprised me is that it's not the parties that have been the problem with MMP but the voters. You see I mistakenly thought that people would think tactically. What I didn't realise, and I should have, is that people really don't care, so tactical considerations are really just irrelevant.
MMP has failed because every time a small party is constructive it gets it whacked. Voters insist on voting for these small, often pretend, parties but only vote for them again if they are noisy, oppositional, and generally negative. New Zealand First in 96, the Alliance in 99 and and United Future in 02 are suffering the same fate - voter approbation because they were constructive. (Yeah I know United isn't part of the government but supports Labour on confidence and supply, and yeah NZ First and the Alliance did misbehave at the end but only because they had disappeared to below 2 per cent in polls and the horses bolted.)
When MMP was coming in there was talk of either the German system, where voters congregate around 2 large and one small party, and the Italian system where, at the time there had been 51 governments since the war. I have these horrid middle of the night flashbacks where I wake up in a cold sweat recalling a passionate argument I had, at a particularly messy party, with an anti MMP person and I said the Italian system would never happen here,..... and on the basis of my persuasion they changed their mind and voted for MMP. I wouldn't be so horrified except that it's about the only time I've succeeded in changing someone's mind.
Now there may be those of you who read this and say... 'it doesn't matter'. And well it does. The economic growth and stability we enjoy is about stable reliable government. Clark and Labour, despite all their faults, and misguided policy have made a one vote majority on supply and confidence look stable.
And as we head towards Bad Decision 05 ....of course while the electorate is guilty, so too is Labour.
More on that later.
posted by Sam NZed | 7:08 am
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