Zardnaar
Deity
In New Zealand we have had proportional voting since 1996. The threshold to enter parliment is 5%.
Yay for us.
However we haven't had a new party enter parliment since 1996 that didn't splinter off from Labour/National. Technically we have 5 parties, the 4 that matter are Labour, National, NZ First, Greens and there's ACT as a single member dodgy deal.
For example Labour in the 80s did free market reforms. Jim Anderton created New Labour and then formed the Alliance which the Greens joined and then splintered off from. ACT was founded by ex right wing Labour members.
NZ First is lead by Winston Peters who was a former National member who didn't like the corporate types. Old school conservative type with a small c.
We had a few other big men type parties in the 90s but but have died off as the big men retire or eventually lose their seats.
However the 5% threshold is also designed to keep out the extremists. Once upon a time the Nazis had less than 5% of the vote and look at nation's like Italy perhaps. NZ is one of the most stable countries in the world.
American style conservatism never caught on here, they are 1-4% of the vote. Some members of the National party are conservative with a small c but they recently rolled him for a more palatable leader who promptly struck out.
In 2012 they looked at lowering it to 4% and dumping the Electorate seat requirement. If you get 4% of the vote and win an Electorate seat you do get into parliment. Under 5% of the vote you don't.
The 4 "big" parties are basically if the Democrats in America split into 4 parties. Theoretically you need 51% of the vote, in practice your coalition can get in with 35% of the vote. Around 25% don't vote and another 5% or so go to parties that don't get in.
Yay for us.
However we haven't had a new party enter parliment since 1996 that didn't splinter off from Labour/National. Technically we have 5 parties, the 4 that matter are Labour, National, NZ First, Greens and there's ACT as a single member dodgy deal.
For example Labour in the 80s did free market reforms. Jim Anderton created New Labour and then formed the Alliance which the Greens joined and then splintered off from. ACT was founded by ex right wing Labour members.
NZ First is lead by Winston Peters who was a former National member who didn't like the corporate types. Old school conservative type with a small c.
We had a few other big men type parties in the 90s but but have died off as the big men retire or eventually lose their seats.
However the 5% threshold is also designed to keep out the extremists. Once upon a time the Nazis had less than 5% of the vote and look at nation's like Italy perhaps. NZ is one of the most stable countries in the world.
American style conservatism never caught on here, they are 1-4% of the vote. Some members of the National party are conservative with a small c but they recently rolled him for a more palatable leader who promptly struck out.
In 2012 they looked at lowering it to 4% and dumping the Electorate seat requirement. If you get 4% of the vote and win an Electorate seat you do get into parliment. Under 5% of the vote you don't.
The 4 "big" parties are basically if the Democrats in America split into 4 parties. Theoretically you need 51% of the vote, in practice your coalition can get in with 35% of the vote. Around 25% don't vote and another 5% or so go to parties that don't get in.
