Currently, left-wing politics is the hope for Europe and most other industrialised nations in the world. Social change for an egalitarian society should be achieved, as the Left Wing emphasised in their rallies. On the other hand, right wingers support or acceptance of social hierarchy, as Goldthorpe mentioned in his text 'An Introduction to Sociology'. Although there are movements to look beyond mere left or right politics, there is a tendency for just left and right politics in most countries. Political parties that has practical policies across the political spectrum, or promote middle ground, are often squeezed by the Left and Right, with their respective strong bases of support.
The call for an egalitarian society is even more significant presently, given that there are strong sentiments to redistribute wealth due to continued wealth growth in the top income earners of nations such as Lakshmi Mittal and Roman Abramvoich; and there is, currently, high unemployment in Europe (23% in France, 50% in Spain currently) send a consistent message to elected governments, that society is getting too unequal to remain sustainable for continued governance.
Even though I think there is a social hierarchy that the society has to maintain, too much inequality may be detrimental for the current situation, where the world is more skewed to the rich than any point since the Great Depression, and the young feels less hopeful than ever before. This is why, for the public, for the time being, a Left Wing government would be preferable.
Unfortunately, in the cases of most governments, the left wing is fragmented. The Right Wing takes power in this situation because the Left is unable to present a coherent platform in all voters, resulting in split loyalties based on centre-left, moderate left and far left ideologies. The Right Wing usually has one large party on moderate right, which scoops up most votes, and eventually, most seats in Parliaments.
This is especially true as many countries adopt the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral system, where there could only be one Member of Parliament (MP) for every constituency. Some countries use other electoral systems, such as the Mixed Member Proportional system, where proportionality is reached after accounting for results from FPTP-like electoral seats gains, through placing party MPs in proportion to parties? voting shares ? which have considerably fairer electoral systems.
In countries with FPTP electoral systems, like United Kingdom or Canada, the left wing is usually split. The Left is often split into the Green Party, the Liberal/Liberal Democratic centrist party that aim to work for a ?balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community? (Liberal Democrats website); most others prefer the socialist parties. So it occurred when both countries concluded their elections, choosing a Conservative-led government in both cases, because the vote is all too spread out across the different left-wing parties. What is worse, the rise of smaller left-wing fringe parties, such as Communist Party and Pirate Party, could further erode chances for more mainstream left-wing parties to gain seats and representation in government.
The Conservative vote with smaller pro-independence or nationalist parties combined together, makes up around 44% of total vote in United Kingdom and 46% in Canada. The Left in the recent British and Canadian elections make up around 53%
It is evident to me that a majority of the voters wants some change to the current governance. Austerity and budget balances should not be done, especially when there is a lack of confidence in the current financial system. Cutting government budget will only make it worse for economies, which want growth.
Fortunately, the Conservative Party in Britain managed only less than a majority of seats needed to form a government, so they decided to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, and they did try to reform the political system in their current term. Probably Britain will have a stable, though less than optimal, government, which may not bring the policy mix the British people want. Over in Canada, though, things are different. The Conservatives in Canada won a majority, with 40% of the vote. The socialist New Democratic Party did achieve a breakthrough in the previous 2011 general elections, becoming the Official Opposition for the first time in history, with 30% of the vote. If not for votes for the Greens (4%) and Liberals (19%), probably the NDP will win even more seats to counter-balance the strong Conservatives.
I think for FPTP systems, the best a left supporter could do is to vote tactically. He (or she) should examine the chances of winning chances of the left-wing candidate that will most likely win the seat, if he is placed high (e.g. second) on the parliamentary seat results in the previous elections.
Until this happens, however, there could only be real hope for smaller left-wing parties, as well as their right-wing counterparts across the political spectrum, to try to push towards electoral reform. It should help governments to move towards more proportionate systems of electing a government, where votes roughly correspond to the party share of Parliament seats.
The call for an egalitarian society is even more significant presently, given that there are strong sentiments to redistribute wealth due to continued wealth growth in the top income earners of nations such as Lakshmi Mittal and Roman Abramvoich; and there is, currently, high unemployment in Europe (23% in France, 50% in Spain currently) send a consistent message to elected governments, that society is getting too unequal to remain sustainable for continued governance.
Even though I think there is a social hierarchy that the society has to maintain, too much inequality may be detrimental for the current situation, where the world is more skewed to the rich than any point since the Great Depression, and the young feels less hopeful than ever before. This is why, for the public, for the time being, a Left Wing government would be preferable.
Unfortunately, in the cases of most governments, the left wing is fragmented. The Right Wing takes power in this situation because the Left is unable to present a coherent platform in all voters, resulting in split loyalties based on centre-left, moderate left and far left ideologies. The Right Wing usually has one large party on moderate right, which scoops up most votes, and eventually, most seats in Parliaments.
This is especially true as many countries adopt the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral system, where there could only be one Member of Parliament (MP) for every constituency. Some countries use other electoral systems, such as the Mixed Member Proportional system, where proportionality is reached after accounting for results from FPTP-like electoral seats gains, through placing party MPs in proportion to parties? voting shares ? which have considerably fairer electoral systems.
In countries with FPTP electoral systems, like United Kingdom or Canada, the left wing is usually split. The Left is often split into the Green Party, the Liberal/Liberal Democratic centrist party that aim to work for a ?balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community? (Liberal Democrats website); most others prefer the socialist parties. So it occurred when both countries concluded their elections, choosing a Conservative-led government in both cases, because the vote is all too spread out across the different left-wing parties. What is worse, the rise of smaller left-wing fringe parties, such as Communist Party and Pirate Party, could further erode chances for more mainstream left-wing parties to gain seats and representation in government.
The Conservative vote with smaller pro-independence or nationalist parties combined together, makes up around 44% of total vote in United Kingdom and 46% in Canada. The Left in the recent British and Canadian elections make up around 53%
It is evident to me that a majority of the voters wants some change to the current governance. Austerity and budget balances should not be done, especially when there is a lack of confidence in the current financial system. Cutting government budget will only make it worse for economies, which want growth.
Fortunately, the Conservative Party in Britain managed only less than a majority of seats needed to form a government, so they decided to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, and they did try to reform the political system in their current term. Probably Britain will have a stable, though less than optimal, government, which may not bring the policy mix the British people want. Over in Canada, though, things are different. The Conservatives in Canada won a majority, with 40% of the vote. The socialist New Democratic Party did achieve a breakthrough in the previous 2011 general elections, becoming the Official Opposition for the first time in history, with 30% of the vote. If not for votes for the Greens (4%) and Liberals (19%), probably the NDP will win even more seats to counter-balance the strong Conservatives.
I think for FPTP systems, the best a left supporter could do is to vote tactically. He (or she) should examine the chances of winning chances of the left-wing candidate that will most likely win the seat, if he is placed high (e.g. second) on the parliamentary seat results in the previous elections.
Until this happens, however, there could only be real hope for smaller left-wing parties, as well as their right-wing counterparts across the political spectrum, to try to push towards electoral reform. It should help governments to move towards more proportionate systems of electing a government, where votes roughly correspond to the party share of Parliament seats.
