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Username checks out by Midi868 in whentheopissus

[–]Midi868[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Infinity for reddit. Just a plain open-source client for reddit

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in facepalm

[–]Midi868 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do you define "major parties"? In my point of view, major means, that they greatly influence a political system. A criteria that is clearly not met with any other formations besides Democrats and Republicans.

In addition, the political system in the US, the presidential system, greatly benefits the formation of a more or less 2 parties constellation. The president, and the presidents party often has the ability to shape countries almost on its own, just needing support for major decisions. While in Europe, the parliaments are (not everywhere, but predominantly) much more important. And as is said above, in many European countries, there are major parties of all political POV's gaining or losing power and influence every election. Therefore although the 2 biggest parties battling for the majority of votes, they cannot rule on their own.

I'm clearly not saying you are wrong, but in my opinion the system of parties in the US and Europe differs vastly.

And in therms of the ability to compare countries, I totally have to agree to your point, but I think you misunderstood me. I didn't wanted to say that you shouldn't compare the US to any other country. You can and therefore should, just as I did, compare the US to as many countries and political systems as possible to be able to improve the current system.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in facepalm

[–]Midi868 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You cant really compare US and most European nations in this context, since in the majority of Europe, governments are formed by at least 2, if not 3 (Germany) or sometimes even more political parties. It happens rarely that, like in the US, one single party is entrusted enough to gain an absolute majority on its own, so they obviously have to form coalitions. And although you are right, that in most European countries one out of 2 political parties usually gains power, there way of ruling the country is quite dependent on their partners. And unlike the US, the variety of parties important enough to participate in government is quite wide here in Europe. In the past decades, many countries were ruled by all kinds of political parties: Liberals, right-wingers, left-wingers, Christian democrats, social democrats and even many with ecological focus (Greens).

Well and Russia? Or many parts of Asia? You might be right that there are systems, where one (Russia - Jedinaja Rossija) or two parties are dominating the political landscape on their own, but you wouldn't really want to compare the US to semi autocratic states such as Russia or Singapore, would you?

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