Canada’s new parliamentary caucuses are all wrongly constituted
Canada has a newly elected national parliament, but its composition is very wrong. In fact, the party parliamentary caucuses in the new House of Commons are unrepresentative of the Canadian … Continue reading
Canadian parliamentary governments have a strange lack of voter backing
Last weeks’s provincial election for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario highlights a major problem with Canadian elections: the surprisingly low electoral mandates of almost all their national and provincial governments. … Continue reading
German parties will form new governing grand coalition
Nearly six months on from last year’s national elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will finally form a new government with a parliamentary mandate, after Social Democrat party members agreed to … Continue reading
Germans might try minority government for a while
Government-formation negotiations flowing from September’s national Bundestag election in Germany is proving difficult, with talks over a three-party coalition collapsing earlier this month. Current Chancellor Angela Merkel had been seeking … Continue reading
New Zealand to have new centre-left government
A new, three-party government will be formed in New Zealand after balance-of-power party New Zealand First chose to side with the opposition Labour Party rather than the governing National Party. … Continue reading
Elections highlight role of PR in coalition-building
Overnight election results in Austria and the north German state of Lower Saxony have highlighted the impact of proportional representation systems in forcing political parties to form joint governments. Voting … Continue reading
Dutch, Germans, Kiwis edge towards governments
Government formation in nations using party list proportional representation is proceeding at very different rates in three countries which held elections during 2017. The Dutch, which held their parliamentary elections … Continue reading
Germans elect complex six-party parliament
Angela Merkel will remain as Chancellor of Germany, but Sunday’s Bundestag elections have seen a historically strong result for the nation’s minor political parties. The combined popular vote share of … Continue reading
New Zealand parties will need to negotiate coalition government
As usual, New Zealand’s new Parliament will not produce a majority government, after the incumbent National Party fell backwards slightly at yesterday’s election. The choice of government will largely lie … Continue reading
Irish Unionists are nervous as vote patterns shift
The UK government stumbling towards a political accomodation with the Irish unionist DUP party comes at a time of increasing edginess for the unionist movement. Voters in both the Republic … Continue reading
On Elections 