[avar]

Perhaps you missed the part where I indicated that they were better than the previous government. They're just still a disappointment.

It's not like I'm some bitter right winger either, my views align more closely with theirs in theory. But in practice they're about the worst thing that could have happened after the crisis, sans the incumbents.

They've failed to enact any meaningful change to financial regulation or government oversight since they took power. They've failed to implement the government transparency that was widely demanded of them (e.g. doing secretive dealings with the IMF). The issue of changing the constitution is now dead in some committee.

As an example of something that's (still) being done right check out the election of the Best Party in Reykjavík. Their agenda (here in Icelandic: http://www.bestiflokkurinn.is/ur-starfi-flokksins/samstarfsy...) includes things that are actually relevant to improving short- and long term life for the population. They've set up an instance of a "shadow government" at http://betrireykjavik.is (running http://github.com/rbjarnason/open-direct-democracy), a fair amount of their policies are being drawn from there. So they're actually listening to their constituency.

[mbotta]

missed that part indeed - i apologise.

google translate helped me make sense of the pages you link to. do i understand correctly that they run the Reykjavik council? sounds like a down-to-earth party representing the interests of the people more than those of the corporations. unusual, that.

also, i like how they use open direct democracy. i wish there were more reporting about this.

all in all, this sounds a little like reverse disaster capitalism: seize the crisis to install laws that benefit the people. disaster socialism? ;)