The General Election in Aotearoa New Zealand is on, with voting closing in a few days time. If you happen to want to know more about our Mixed Member Proportional representation system this is a good explainer: Election 2020: Our MMP voting system explained.
Leon Mika Thanks for the link. I was curious as to how the MMP voting system actually work and the video on that page was the clearest explanation that I've seen so far. You might also be interested in this article I read in Vox.com about how Aotearoa New Zealand's system of government is considered the best in the world.
Miraz Jordan @lmika Interesting article. It's hard for us here with our tiny 5 million people in the entire country to come to grips with how democracy might work in a country with, is it, 350 million. I do think though that the ‘first past the post' system is fundamentally broken.
Leon Mika Yeah, I agree with you there. I guess it's easier to reform or just tweak the voting system in a country like NZ with a relatively small population and an independent electoral commission. I imagine moving to something like MMP in the US would be extremely hard given how decisions are made over there.
David Sinclair Back in my day, the NZ population was only 3 million. 5 seems overcrowded to me. Which is funny considering just the state of Oregon, where I now live, has over 4 million people. But anyway, I wish the US used NZ's system; the current system here is so broken in so many ways. Sure, the US is bigger, but it consists of many smaller units (states, counties, cities, etc), and with modern technology, there's no need for a system designed hundreds of years ago.
Miraz Jordan @dejus I recall my youth when NZ had 3 million people and 60 million sheep! Now it’s hard to find a sheep between all the cow paddocks. Meanwhile the population creeps up. I was shocked by every single news report at the height of Covid by how many non-Kiwis were leaving and how many Kiwis were returning from overseas.
David Sinclair I guess beef is more profitable, or something. I'm tempted to be one of those Kiwis to return from overseas. The US election may influence that.
Miraz Jordan @dejus Dairy has taken over the country, presumably because milk products are profitable. They're putting dairy where the land isn't even suitable too. The farm next to us is either 200 or 400 acres (I can never remember). It's dairy at the far end and beef at our end. The steers are grown on in paddocks near us.