[bjornsing]

No you can’t really vote for an independent MP in the Swedish voting system. They would have to register a party, it’s very hard to win a seat, and there is no guarantee that they will not win two or more seats – thus perpetuating the collectivism.

[0xDEAFBEAD]

At least you don't have the spoiler problem like 3rd parties in the US have though, right?

Why is it hard for a new party to win a seat? In the US, for a 3rd party to win, something like 50% of the relevant electorate has to coordinate their vote to switch to the 3rd party. It sounds like in Scandinavia, the fraction of the electorate which needs to coordinate is just 1 / num_seats, which is way smaller.

If I were a Swede, I would be tempted to troll everyone by setting up an "independents party". The seats for that party are allocated based on a separate vote, open to the public. Candidates of the "independents party" have absolutely no obligation to vote together, and act as free agents once they get elected. Sort of like a democracy-within-a-democracy.

[viraptor]

You're describing direct democracy parties and they exist in other places in non-trolly way. For example the Australian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Direct_Democracy

[wqaatwt]

It might be hard to convince people to vote for a party made up of random people who might have very contradictory views.

[bjornsing]

> Why is it hard for a new party to win a seat?

There are thresholds to avoid too many small parties / independents getting elected. You need to win 4% of the vote nationally or 12% regionally to get a single seat, and if you do then you typically get more than one. Congrats, you’re now a collectivist too.

> If I were a Swede…

I’ve considered it. :)