Who do you think will win the election this year?
Ben, exactly the point with the 'pendulum' notion. Let's all take turns doing things not very different from the other. We might as well give up voting and appoint a management committee... Without real political extremes and agendas that re politically 'fought' over and with proportional representation we get just a few steps closer to representative government. But better that than the nowhere and nothing politics of the present moment.
will a change of bossman make a difference to what happenzs to the country?
You may think so but even if the director general has good intentions....AND DO THEY KNOW HOW TO INSTIGATE THEM. And who will listien?
Not exactly a political statement but just the facts of life.
But to be honest I think this kind of "pendulum politics" is one of the worst things that can happen in a democracy. Pendulum in the sense of governments that threaten to alter each election between very well defined opposites in the political spectrum.
As for Germany: they need to form coalitions since it is very rare that one party will get more than 50% of the votes. This will have a mitigating effect on the political programs so Merkel might indeed pull it off the next time.
But then again, as a Dutchman I'm a real advocate of proportional representation and not of the French nor the UK system. Whatever you might think of Le Penn or Bayrou, even if in the first round a substantial minority vote for them, these votes will be put aside in the second round...
Celeste, I have for one reason or another spent many years in Germany and speak their language as well as Englisch (ooops), so read lots of things like Der Spiegel as much as English or French. Merkel is so popular there that the opposition with weak leadership may not even rely on its own 'support' and she will walk through again. There is never a certain bet though...
dead right, French psephology is so inept, given the rest of the social sciences tend to be so good, that there is no poll worth looking at. Sarko needs to catch 'Ollande on a down moment, move in a talk DSK, Ségolène and all the rest of that scientific putting down and he will walk it.
LOL. Made a comment like that not long ago on the site of "Libération"; think it stayed there for about 1 second. They don't have any sense of humor these socialist
ha ha Celeste, nice one that but it's way too early to tell and don't believe a word of the opinion poles - they haven't got a clue! the UMP and Sarkozy are more than capable of launching a full on all out offensive nearer the time - I think they're saving their bullets for the moment. And anyway I'm not too sure that things would be any better under Hollande - Ségolène's the only one who can tell us what that's like :-O ;-D