Paul Wells is writing about German Chancellor Angela Merle and challenges facing her coalition government, but he drops a significant message about how proportional representation works.
“A British prime minister with a majority, or a French president with a direct mandate from the people, has all kinds of latitude to push drastic reforms hard. But Germany’s parliament has two powerful houses, one with big-time input from powerful regional governments in the Lander. It’s dose of proportional top-up means members of various parties’ elites can have political careers that last for decades without ever depending on direct support from a particulate constituency to survive the next election. They become independent power centres and add yet another layer of complexity” - Paul Wells, Maclean’s, Dec 3, 2007 (emphasis added)
Had Ontario voted to adopt mixed-member-proportional representation in October’s referendum, we too would be looking to a top-up system that would ensure a few partisan elites seats, and powerful platforms, in the legislature for as long as they wished to serve – without the bother of ever getting elected. Unlike appointed Canadian senators, these appointees would have real power to thwart governments, according to their often fringe movements’ interests. Fortunately, Ontario voters – 75% of whom responded to election-eve surveys stating they understood MMP – saw the damage such a system could do and rejected it soundly.
“A British prime minister with a majority, or a French president with a direct mandate from the people, has all kinds of latitude to push drastic reforms hard. But Germany’s parliament has two powerful houses, one with big-time input from powerful regional governments in the Lander. It’s dose of proportional top-up means members of various parties’ elites can have political careers that last for decades without ever depending on direct support from a particulate constituency to survive the next election. They become independent power centres and add yet another layer of complexity” - Paul Wells, Maclean’s, Dec 3, 2007 (emphasis added)
Had Ontario voted to adopt mixed-member-proportional representation in October’s referendum, we too would be looking to a top-up system that would ensure a few partisan elites seats, and powerful platforms, in the legislature for as long as they wished to serve – without the bother of ever getting elected. Unlike appointed Canadian senators, these appointees would have real power to thwart governments, according to their often fringe movements’ interests. Fortunately, Ontario voters – 75% of whom responded to election-eve surveys stating they understood MMP – saw the damage such a system could do and rejected it soundly.
