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October 13, 2006
Myth 7: Proportional representation means weak and unstable government and permanent toothless consensualism
British political culture is seemingly built on the idea of an elected semi-dictatorship. We want one side to win and have all the power, and then we want to get annoyed with them and get rid of them a couple of elections down the line.
Proportional representation is less likely, on the whole, to deliver whopping majorities to a single party. It thus apparently means either weak minority government, or coalitions, which many people argue lead to "smooth and pointless" policy, and nothing of note ever gets done. The media's attitude to government is a curious one. When it's got a big majority, it's arrogant and against the public will, and when it's a coalition, it's in chaos.
Major democratic governments from Australia to Ireland would probably be a tad insulted if you were to suggest that all their policies are useless and that their governments are unworkable fudges, but there you go.
All this is to forget, however, that single-party governments can exist under proportional representation – all that is required is for a party to command wide enough support among the electorate, as opposed to FPTP, where a level of support somewhere around 35 per cent of the electorate (40 per cent plus if you're the Tories) is good enough for 100 per cent of the power.
In Spain and Malta, for example, the normal pattern has been for single-party government despite PR. In Ireland, Fianna Fail fell just short of a majority in 2002 – largely because the electorate wanted to return it to power but did not trust it with an overall majority.
In many countries, even with highly proportional systems, stable coalitions are formed which alternate in government. In recent elections in Norway and Sweden centre-right and left alliances have exchanged power in clear-cut election results. There was no mushy consensual politics in the last few Italian elections, where rival coalitions presented highly distinct appeals.
PR is also no barrier to right-wing governments, as many seem to think. Aznar, Berlusconi, and National in New Zealand have all formed governments under PR systems.
Moreover, the most unstable governments are often those governments with a small, or no, overall majority that FPTP throws up – as in Britain in 1974-79 and 1992-97, and frequently in Canada. These governments will tend to be threatened as much by their own backbenchers as minority parties, and are forced into short-term calculations in the hope of hanging on or calling another election to win a majority.
Posted by pauldavies on October 13, 2006
