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Should Poland change its Government from Parliamentary to American Style Republic? One-mandate districts?


Meathead 5 | 469
5 Sep 2010 #1
From reading the posts on this forum (i.e., Cross war in Warsaw, Poles starting first strike in America, etc.) maybe Poles are too individualistic for a Parliamentary form of Government (it gives too much power to the ruling party). A US style republic would give more power to minorities so as Polonia3 puts it, "they wouldn't feel so marginalized".
aphrodisiac 11 | 2,437
5 Sep 2010 #2
but, but.....isn't the form of government an extension of a particular society?
OP Meathead 5 | 469
5 Sep 2010 #3
aphrodisiac

but, but.....isn't the form of government an extension of a particular society?

Yes, indeed it is. That's my point of the thread, maybe parliament is not a good fit for Poland's culture.
aphrodisiac 11 | 2,437
5 Sep 2010 #4
maybe parliament is not a good fit for Poland's culture.

why would they have it then?
smurf 39 | 1,969
5 Sep 2010 #5
to OP

a simple no
Pinching Pete - | 554
5 Sep 2010 #6
A US style republic

It's an interesting proposition.. but the EU sure as hell would not like it. They don't like your ties to the US already.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
5 Sep 2010 #7
At present Poland ranks somewhere between a presidential system (US, France) and a chanclerian one (Germany et al). Being popualry elected, the Polish president wields more pwoer than his German opposite number but nowhere near that of the French or US chief executive. The PO has gone on record as saying it wanted to weaken the presidency, whilst PiS wants (wanted?) to strengtehn it. That was when Lech was in power, but now they don't mention it much anymore.
Malopolanin 3 | 133
5 Sep 2010 #8
Poland should have something like parliamentary elective monarchy(for life, prime minister & president in one). I think it would work.
OP Meathead 5 | 469
5 Sep 2010 #9
aphrodisiac

why would they have it then?

Poland's political history is about Golden Democracy which was a very diffused political system. Maybe they (Poles) need some modern update of that.
aphrodisiac 11 | 2,437
5 Sep 2010 #10
nah, the oldies must die down and be replace by the new generation.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
7 May 2015 #11
Merged: Fewer parliamentary parasites in Poland needed?

What do you think about introducing one-mandate election districts? The argument is that voters would vote for specific people not party ballots. That has been bandied about for years but nothing has come

of it. Advocates say it has worked in other countries like the UK. Is that so?
On another score, it would save loads of taxpayer złotys if the Sejm were limited to 200 seats rather than the current 460. And a 50-seat Senate would be more than enough. Whaddya think?
Gosc123456
8 May 2015 #12
Witam! 100% ok with you! Too many people! I also believe they should be elected in their names like it's the case in most countries and not on lists/ An overall cleaning is necessary too in order to finish with or at least to seriously limit the wrong doings of many of them. Last year's scandals were just a few examples but it seems that nothing is being done against them. The result is that most Poles don't bother to vote and thefefore elected politicians don't represent much but only themselves. In last local élections (November 2014), fewer than 40% of Poles voted and most probably fewer than 50% shall vote in the upcoming presidential election. The conclusion is clear: people don't believe in politicians (and they are right).
jon357 74 | 22,190
8 May 2015 #13
There should be more not fewer and yes, there should be one poseł constituencies with an obligation for them to actually live there themselves and conduct surgeries helping the people who elect them.

They should also get rid of this ridiculous PRL-era immunity from arrest/prosecution. Same for prosecutors who just park their cars wherever they like and speed knowing they won't get a ticket.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
8 May 2015 #14
i reckon the one-mandate constituency, which I had thought was something superior, is not that good after all. The Birtish election gave some skewed results. The winner-takes-all approach distorts the voters' choice. A couple million voted fro UKIP but they got only one seat. A party which won fewer votes got 8 seats.
jon357 74 | 22,190
9 May 2015 #15
It certainly gives interesting results however you have to balance that against everybody knowing who their representative is, members of a local party being able to deselect them and any member of the public having access to their MP in their surgery.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
9 May 2015 #16
If the number of seats is nowhere near the number of ballots cast, such a system makes a mockery of representative government.
jon357 74 | 22,190
9 May 2015 #17
Or makes for stability. Preferable to the system in PL where people Sometimes don't know the name of their representative.

Having said that, if the UK had proportional representation, we wouldn't have all those Scottish Nationalists, we'd have a decent handful of greens and the conservatives wouldn't be continuing - many people voted for left/centre left parties.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
9 May 2015 #18
Regardless of personal preference, to be democratic a system must be consructed in such as way as to make ballot-box activity by voters at least roughly commensurate with the final outcome. Although I personally favour conservatives and feel yoru PM is not conservative enough, every legitimate option should have an equal chance to win, even loony Greens and off-the-wall leftists. The exception would be nazis and communists, as is wisely the case in Poland.
jon357 74 | 22,190
9 May 2015 #19
Well, Poland's had both far right and far left governments and people do seem to be happy with the centre-right government we have now. When a more socially conservative one briefly held office due to an unelected coalition with fascists and agrarian protesters they were voted out at the earliest opportunity. People don't like extremes.

One huge benefit of the first past the post system is that it keeps extreme nationalists out, unfortunately at the expense of more moderate groups like greens.
Polonius3 993 | 12,357
9 May 2015 #20
Greens are moderates?! More like publicity-seeking whackos and loonies. Last anyone heard MP Bejgowski-turned-Grodzka is in their bin.


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