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by gman83 1275 days ago
Proportional representation also has its problems. Look at the Netherlands, which has 17 different parties in parliament and led to it becoming increasingly difficult to form coalitions, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Dutch_cabine...

3 comments

I'm confused when you wrote "becoming increasingly difficult to form coalitions". Mark Rutte has been PM since 2010. Wiki says: "On 2 August 2022, he became the longest-serving Prime Minister in Dutch history..." Without specific examples that demonstrate a trend, the term "increasingly difficult" is editorial-speak. Also, look at NL economy for last 30 years. Looks pretty good compared to any other highly developed country. That is very difficult to do without a high functioning govt.
Yes politics is irrelevant what makes the Netherlands one of the best places to live is and always has been the economy.

Revolution happens when the bread runs out.

Yes voters should just buckle down and vote for a big left/right party. Voters are getting too much democracy for their own good!
Agree. Look at democracies where two parties dominate. The choices look awful. Where is the center represented in UK and US?
The center is represented in the UK by Labour, and by the Democrats in the US. The left is not represented in either country.
The “center” or “left” of what? The US is a country that’s as religious as Iran where a decisive majority disapprove of the Supreme Court’s ban on school prayer: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/13/south-carol.... It’s a country where 68% of Americans wouldn’t pay even $10 per month in energy bills to mitigate climate change: https://www.cato.org/blog/68-americans-wouldnt-pay-10-month-...

You might not approve of where the “center” is in the US, but Democrats absolutely represent the center left and republicans represent the center right of the actual American electorate.

Yes, but since the US is a more right-wing country than the rest of the developed world (healthcare, death penalty, taxes...), that would mean the Democrats are "centrist" and Republicans "right." Characterizing based on relativity to the developed world seems much more fitting, since we're discussing it between people mostly from other developed countries and in a thread about Britain.
Right wing on what measure?

With abortion restrictions in Europe, Europe looks further right than the US or Canada on that issue.

In reality we don't really know where center lies in either country given the circumstance.
The Democrats and Republicans already represent a range of the political spectrum, they aren’t monolithic.

And the US isn’t a Parliamentary democracy, so Congresspeople don’t have to vote along party lines (and often don’t).

If that is what voters want, that is what voters should get.

Depriving voters of freedom to be represented the way they want because you don't like the outcome is fundamentally undemocratic.