I’d say here in Germany it is mostly a unpopularity contest.
Comment on Seriously, what the f*** is keeping Donald Trump in this presidential race?
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 1 month agoI’m actually curious.
Are there countries (ones that have a voting system) where it isn’t all one big popularity contest?
menemen@lemmy.world 1 month ago
fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc 1 month ago
I think there’s a saying about this, “Elections are always lost, never won” or some such.
photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Parliamentary systems at least choose parties, not people. This means that the most popular party, not person, will have a greater share of power. It’s harder, but not impossible (looking at you, Geert Wilders), to get a Trump.
Bruncvik@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Ireland uses a variant of ranked choice voting. In essence, voters get a list of candidates for their voting district, and rank as many of them as they want in order of preference. When votes are counted, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated, and votes of those who ranked the candidate first are distributed to their second choice. Rinse and repeat until only as many candidates remain as there are open seats in the constituency.
There is still some inertia, especially in rural areas (“my dad always voted for this candidate, so I’ll vote for his son”), but the system still lends itself to more informed voting. From what I’ve seen in other countries, on average Ireland does a better job at electing more reasonable candidates than the US or EU countries.
fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc 1 month ago
Australia’s electoral system is far from perfect, but it seems to be less focus on the prime minister then there is on the US president.
Of course the PM still needs to be popular and electable, and we’re sliding to the right like most democracies, but I can’t imagine we could have an election like the current US cycle where no one is really talking about policy.
SSJMarx@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Yes, but we’re taught that those democracies don’t count because they’re non white.
MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
No
CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 1 month ago
As I understand it only the US, UK and countries like Russia use first past the post these days.
pbsds@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
In Norway it is common to find quizzes in newspaper websites that question you on different topics and score how well you align with the various parties. They’re great at both introducing you to current political hot topics while also orienting you about the various parties that exist, of which there are far more that two that are viable to choose from.
Ziglin@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Germany has one that they call a wahlomat.