Faction proposal/discussion

[Jon Seattle]

I, for one, am glad to see this. No, I have absolutely no intention of leaving the CSDF, which I like very much. But I think this new faction may create a more interesting mix in CDS politics.

I have always been a US citizen so it took me a while to understand the consequences of the CDS’s european style system of representation. In the US a third party almost always weakens the party it is closest to. In a european-style system parties can easily form coalitions to support proposals that they agree on. Under this arrangement more parties just means more and better representation of people’s views.

The point of politics is not to win the game, but to make sure that people’s best interested and aspirations are reflected in government. More parties can help this.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

I sadly only attended the beginning of this new party's meeting, but it was quite enlightening and refreshing for me to see that a group of citizens is actually getting together to form a new party that specifically addresses their concerns.

Like Jon, it's quite unlikely that I'll leave the CSDF for now, but I truly view this new emerging party as a "third way" that really should do things more interesting. In fact, our method of using a Sainte-League model to attribute seats to party members is actually slightly biased towards legislatures with more than two parties; the two-party bipolarised model doesn't work so well under this method. A third party shall make for far more interesting balances of power at the RA. This will be more and more true as the RA grows; as we reach 51 members, we'll soon need to have 7 RA members (hopefully for the next term!) and so a new party will be more than welcome to try to grab those extra seats

I wish all the citizens forming this new party all the best of luck! Our system has been designed to spontaneously encourage the creation of new parties to better reflect citizen's ideas and opinions on how the CDS should work best for those very same citizens; I'm truly glad that a group of citizens have seized the opportunity and rose to the occasion by going with their own party!

[Claude Desmoulins]

[quote="Gwyneth Llewelyn":2w050cah] This will be more and more true as the RA grows; as we reach 51 members, we'll soon need to have 7 RA members (hopefully for the next term!) and so a new party will be more than welcome to try to grab those extra seats [/quote:2w050cah]

Actually , the relevant bit of Article I, section 2 states:

[quote:2w050cah]The number of representative seats in the RA is equal to the odd whole number nearest to 10% of the population, rounded down, with a minimum of five seats and a maximum of fourty seats.[/quote:2w050cah]

51/10= 5.1 rounded down = 5

So the rollover to a seven member RA happens at 70 citizens. With CN that may still happen soon.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Ah yes, thank you, I stand corrected. I guess I misread the "rounded down" bit.

[Aliasi Stonebender]

For those who missed the previous meeting, or who wish to talk more, I intend to host one tomorrow, again at the Biergarden, at 10 am SLT.