Schlagwort-Archive: Coalitions

Election Grab Bag

Every day we choose our preferred alternatives out of the flood of possibilities. It starts when we wake up and decide to jump out of bed or stay in bed for another five minutes. In the day, we choose from many private and commercial offers, the ones we prefer. As long as we can afford them, we have no problem. Now let’s imagine that we buy a new jacket. When paying we find out that we get a completely different one. Upon inquiry, the person behind the register explains that the colleagues have agreed to give us a different one. What’s going on here?

An election should always be free of influences, observations, and inequality. If this is not the case, this act becomes a farce. The same applies to democratic elections. At least two alternatives are required for a ballot. That way is how people and parties are selected to represent the electorate in certain offices. The fragmented opinions leads in Germany to an increasing number of parties. It results in a majority not being capable of governing – unlike in the USA, where are only two parties choose. Consequently, coalitions capable of reigning are formed AFTER the election – regardless of the voters’ verdict.

  • Coalitions as late as AFTER the election
    Parties are elected. They promise their election program beforehand, which would be fulfilled at best if they would get the majority. The major parties in Germany only have enough for 20 to 30%. To offer the voter the alternatives for the election, the coalitions with their compromises would also have to stand for election. Only then would voters be sure that they would be involved in the politics of the following four years.
  • The final agreements
    Since the coalition agreement is negotiated afterward, voters cast their ballots for a grab bag. It is true that the partners in a coalition bring their programs to the negotiations and draw up a contract that lasts for the duration of the legislature. However, shortened compromises are agreed. They release the elected people from the promises made before the election. The electorate can act on them not until four years later unless they get again blinded by new promises. Additional agreements are negotiated tit-for-tat during the legislative session. After the election, the electorate no longer influences the parties. For the duration, they become independent in the style of classical sovereigns.
  • Big coalition – minor opposition
    The more percentages a coalition gathers behind itself, the more freedom it has. As soon as it brings more than three-quarters of the votes together, the result is that debates no longer take place in parliament but only within the government. In the big coalition, the alliance of the two largest parties was already sufficient to undermine parliament. This parallel society has the power because the parliamentary regulations no longer work. Parliament is not anymore part of the struggle for solutions.
  • Line whip replaces responsibility to the electorate
    Despite the principle of the free mandate that binds members of parliament only to their conscience, the members of a party follow the guidelines of their executive committee. Although voters select their representatives according to their attitudes, these qualities are lost in parliament. The line whip demands from the deputies to subordinate themselves to the party policy of the executive committee.

Bottom line: Politicians like to draw our attention to the “threatening” influences of the internet, the “fringe” parties, and the apparent problems in society – such as economic development, wind turbines, immigration, compulsory vaccinations, and masks. That way, they distract from the real issues with democracy. The electorate no longer has control over their parliaments. The parliamentarians pursue their agendas:

1) to get elected; 2) to implement party policies; 3) to serve their stakeholders.

An election thus becomes a grab bag. Only after the votes are counted, the governing coalitions are negotiated behind closed doors without the electorate. The electorate lacks the alternatives because the coalition programs have not even been negotiated before the election. In addition, the binding agreements become the maximum program for the government – no more. With a majority, the coalition can govern without considering the needs of the entire parliament. Decisions are negotiated within the coalition. In addition, the hidden factional coercion leads to the release of any responsibility of the delegates. Power is assumed by party executives and their representatives in negotiated ministries. The people’s representatives have thus found ways to govern, regardless of the will of the voters. With today’s sizes of parties, an election in Germany becomes a grab bag, the contents of which only become visible after the election is over and coalitions have been found and negotiated.

When democracy is actually none

Since the fifties of the last century, the world population tripled to 7.5 billion. At the same time, one-tenth of the world’s population owns more than 85% of private wealth. This creates a tension that requires imposing the majority stable. Over the millennia, the rule of the people, democracy, has prevailed as a clever form of reign. It suggests to the masses that they would have the control of the social development. But what happens if, over time, mechanisms and behaviors have emerged that make out of participation an illusion – when democracy is actually none.

The roots of this development could already be seen in the beginning. Over the years, more pragmatic approaches have been added.

  • Only certain people are allowed to vote
    Already in the cradle of democracy not all people were allowed to vote, but only full citizens – only about 10% of the population. Women and slaves were even not considered. Today, voters are also excluded if, for example, they have not yet reached a certain age, or because they belong to a minority, or by deleting them from the voter’s list, or by exclusion of certain groups of the population due to their physical and mental conditions, or through intimidation, or through misinformation, or even by direct buying of votes.
  • Missing selection of candidates
    If there is only one candidate available, voters have no choice – like in Singapore or Haiti. This can also happen due to competitors without chances, as in Russia or Egypt. An interesting variant is the election of a party, without any candidates, as in Kazakhstan.
  • Preselection of candidates
    As soon as the candidates need admittance for the election, nobody can speak of a free choice. Thus, in Iran, the candidates must be at first approved by the Guardian Council. In Russia, candidates must be over 35 years, not convicted, and nonpartisans need 300,000 signatures to participate at all. A preselection also takes place, if not all candidates make it to the election, because they are intimidated or detained by physical violence.
  • The winner takes all
    In the American electoral system, the president is elected indirectly by so-called electoral delegates. Each state has a certain number. The voters decide by their vote, which party wins the federal state and after the majority vote the winner gets then all electoral delegates. This distorts the election result in a bizarre way. Of the 232 million eligible voters, 123 million actually voted. With 46.9%, the non-voters actually won the election. The current president was able to win the presidency with 59 million or 25.5% of the voters, because of the higher number of electoral delegates, although his counter-candidate was able to bring in 2 million more voters with 25.6%.
  • Unelected coalitions
    The political landscape is fragmented into more and more cultural parallel societies, which moreover open up their own sociotope. In Germany, the former popular parties are no longer able to assemble majorities. The Christian Union has only a slight lead due to an artificial structure that apart from a C has nothing in common. And even that is not enough for an absolute majority. Therefore, after the election, coalitions are decided over the heads of voters. Based on the coalition agreement, the parties determine among themselves, without voters, what they want to achieve together – but the will is not enough to get statements done and more cannot be expected, since it is not agreed. Political discussion will only take place to a limited extent in the following legislative term, since everything has already been decided in advance. Noteworthy is the fact that although only 76.2% of voters have voted, the mandates rose from 631 to 709.

Bottom line: The speed at which some countries, such as China, are moving in an alternative political leadership style should make our hesitant political thinkers think. What does the Western model of democracy, which got stuck in routines and overregulation, need? More participation? Less career politicians? What? If only certain people are allowed to vote, if there is no choice, if candidates are preselected, if uncoordinated coalitions emerge afterwards, or if the procedures of counting votes lead to a distorted expression of the voters will, then, the democratic routines are obsolete. First of all, it takes an idea for how to do it differently. At least a transfer of the “best” political system to an actual representation of the will of the majority is necessary, so that democracy is actually one.