# election question



## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

I am still trying to understand politics in Spain. Lets say the election results are...
PP 23%, PSOE 22%, Podemos 21%, Ciudadanos 15% (which is the latest poll I found, rounded).

How likely is it that the parties that did not get a plurality (in this case, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos) form a coalition? Is it even technically possible? I see that coalitions like this have happened in some cities, but can it happen nationally?


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

I believe this is entirely possible in most European countries. There was a moment after the 2010 UK election when it seemed the two largest minority parties (Lib Dems and Labour) might form a coalition government. However the Lib Dems then said it would support the largest party out of principle.

This scenario appears to be becoming ever more likely around Europe as countries that traditionally had two big parties now find newer, alternative parties taking larger slices of the vote. So voters not only have to decide who to vote for, but now have to analyse all the potential resultant coalitions to make sure their vote carries most weight.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

skip o said:


> I am still trying to understand politics in Spain. Lets say the election results are...
> PP 23%, PSOE 22%, Podemos 21%, Ciudadanos 15% (which is the latest poll I found, rounded).
> 
> How likely is it that the parties that did not get a plurality (in this case, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos) form a coalition? Is it even technically possible? I see that coalitions like this have happened in some cities, but can it happen nationally?


Yes, I'd say it is not only technically possible, but extremely likely that the next national government will consist of more than one party. This is the case in most European countries. Only three (UK, Spain and Malta) currently have a single party in power.

http://www.cityam.com/215578/which-...ht-wing-governments-and-which-have-coalitions


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Alcalaina said:


> Yes, I'd say it is not only technically possible, but extremely likely that the next national government will consist of more than one party. This is the case in most European countries. Only three (UK, Spain and Malta) currently have a single party in power.
> 
> How coalitions dominate Europe: David Cameron's majority makes UK one of only three single party governments | City A.M.


I might well be wrong, but I think the OP was asking whether the parties that didn't get the most votes can form a coalition to form a government, at the expense of the party that wonmost votes. I guess most of the coalition governments in Europe include the party that won most votes.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

skip o said:


> I am still trying to understand politics in Spain. Lets say the election results are...
> PP 23%, PSOE 22%, Podemos 21%, Ciudadanos 15% (which is the latest poll I found, rounded).
> 
> How likely is it that the parties that did not get a plurality (in this case, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos) form a coalition? Is it even technically possible? I see that coalitions like this have happened in some cities, but can it happen nationally?


What you also have to understand is that there is proportional representation here in Spain, which means that, even without forming a coalition, the "also-ran" parties still have some power. Unfortunately in the UK with the FPTP system, you can have millions of people voting for a party and getting absolutely no representation. With the PR system (as here in Spain - not the one offered to the UK electorate) you can still have a voice.


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

baldilocks said:


> What you also have to understand is that there is proportional representation here in Spain, which means that, even without forming a coalition, the "also-ran" parties still have some power. Unfortunately in the UK with the FPTP system, you can have millions of people voting for a party and getting absolutely no representation. With the PR system (as here in Spain - not the one offered to the UK electorate) you can still have a voice.


Or, as in the case of the recent local elections in Spain, the "also-ran" parties can end up sharing all the power, while the party that got most votes ends up with no power whatsoever.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Chopera said:


> I might well be wrong, but I think the OP was asking whether the parties that didn't get the most votes can form a coalition to form a government, at the expense of the party that wonmost votes. I guess most of the coalition governments in Europe include the party that won most votes.


I'm pretty sure that has happened in Holland, and possibly Denmark (though I might have got that from watching Borgen). In the last Andalucian government the PP had the most votes but the IU and PSOE formed a coalition. It depends on whether a party can get the support of the majority of members in the house.


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Alcalaina said:


> I'm pretty sure that has happened in Holland, and possibly Denmark (though I might have got that from watching Borgen). In the last Andalucian government the PP had the most votes but the IU and PSOE formed a coalition. It depends on whether a party can get the support of the majority of members in the house.


It happened in Madrid and Valencia in the recent elections. Very much everyone else ganging up on the PP in those councils, which I personally agreed with, but it was more a case of "vote for this person to get rid of that person" rather than "vote for this person because you like their policies". It becomes so tactical that it's hard to gauge what people actually want.


----------



## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

Thanks everybody!


----------



## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

Chopera said:


> Or, as in the case of the recent local elections in Spain, the "also-ran" parties can end up sharing all the power, while the party that got most votes ends up with no power whatsoever.


Yes, but the people still have representatives who they voted for , unlike the FPTPost system.


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

gus-lopez said:


> Yes, but the people still have representatives who they voted for , unlike the FPTPost system.


Yes it's the old trade-off between strong government or representative government. My point is that even with a more representative system like the one used in Spain, people still end up voting tactically and not for the person who best represents them. To my mind the most important aspect of democracy isn't the ability to have someone directly representing you but rather the ability to hold the government to account, to be able to vote people out and out for good. We must be able to keep our politicians on their toes. The FPTP system appears more adept at this, while supposedly more representative systems require more tactical, and therefore less representative voting, in order to vote politicians out of the system.


----------

