rachel on 7/5/2007 at 09:16
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
Bad luck Raph :(
Well, I'm a Browncoat ;)
As out Big Damn Captain said,
"Might have been on the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one..."N'Al on 7/5/2007 at 09:38
Well, I think Sarkozy winning was pretty much a fait accomplit after the first round, so I can't say I'm surprised.
Personally, I'm just glad it's over; having almost every programme on the TV in some way related to the elections for two months straight does get to be a bit tedious after a while - particularly when it's about elections you're unable to vote in.
jbairdjr on 7/5/2007 at 09:40
Quote Posted by aguywhoplaysthief
This election has really given me hope that the idea of democratic politics isn't a completely pointless fraud.
Thanks guys!
So France can be called a real country now, and you can shit in your pants!
:cheeky:
aguywhoplaysthief on 7/5/2007 at 14:54
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
It's nice to see lots of people get all votey and all, but with as close as dammit to a 50/50 split there's only one president. That's just dumb.
Why's that?
France, having what I think is one of the most well designed electoral systems in the world, also has a prime minister, and they can be from a different party.
jay pettitt on 7/5/2007 at 15:43
Because being so closely contested means that a lot of people lose out on being represented at the presidential level. That doesn't strike me as being a great result.
Having a prime minister is not necessarily the mark of a well designed democratic system ;)
(edit - as an after thought, what happens if you scrap government and rely only on parliament?)
Turtle on 7/5/2007 at 16:19
You'd need a series of checks and balances, so you'd also need to have a Funkadelic.
SD on 7/5/2007 at 17:56
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
Because being so closely contested means that a lot of people lose out on being represented at the presidential level. That doesn't strike me as being a great result.
France's president was elected with 53% of the vote on an 85% turnout.
Our Prime Minister was elected with 35% of the vote on a 61% turnout.
You're always going to have a situation where not everyone gets the guy they wanted, but France's elections strike me as rather more representative than ours.
rachel on 7/5/2007 at 18:43
I agree. I for one hate to have him in office now, but you can't deny it's the will of the people that put him there. The President is elected at the majority, not unanimously. And since historically we always follow up on our decisions, he can likely count on a very strong majority to be elected to parliament next month, with little to no opposition to implement his program.
I don't like that this time because he's not on my side, but this system makes perfect sense. You gotta give the man in charge the power he needs to do what he said and try to prove his point.
However, aguywhoplaysthief, I rather like the cohabitation system too, but having a President and a Prime Minister who aren't on the same side can be a real pain in the ass for the country as a whole because usually when that happens, neither of them can do shit. And don't even start on the international conventions like EU reunions, where they're both there, splendidly ignoring each other. The possibility does bring some kind of balance, but also has its share of drawbacks.
jay pettitt on 7/5/2007 at 19:32
Bollocks. It wasn't the will of ~50% of the populous. It doesn't much matter that 115% turned out to vote (if anything that makes it worse). You can barely sliver a cigarette paper between the level of support for the two different ideologies; yet the end result doesn't even begin to represent that fact. You've been had.
mopgoblin on 7/5/2007 at 20:40
Quote Posted by raph
I agree. I for one hate to have him in office now, but you can't deny it's the will of the people that put him there.
Yes, you can. Once you consider spoiled and null votes, he only received 50.83% of the votes. I haven't found a reliable source for this, but I get the impression that there's no formal "no confidence" option? If that's the case, I doubt he'd still have a majority if that option was available.
