Parliament of the Equestrian Republic, Year 100 · 7:17pm Apr 8th, 2012
Equestria is a Unitary Parliamentary Republic, with a unicameral legislature. All power is held by the 500 seat Parliament.
The Parliament has three major parties, the centre-left Pony's Progressive Party, the centre-right Conservative Party, and the green politics Green Party. Plus a number of other smaller parties that go back and forth with extreme minorities of seats. These parties are generally ignored, because even if their ideologies weren't incredibly different, they don't have enough power to challenge the major parties anyway. The best they can do, is stall the introduction of legislation that they don't like for as long as possible.
In year 100 of the Republic, the Pony's Progressive Party is in control of government. While the Conservative Party has been relegated to the stance of the Opposition.
While technically part of the opposition, the Green Party has a long history of cooperation with the PPP, and while not in an official coalition with the PPP, they don't stand with the Conservatives either, thus making them incredibly important when it comes time to vote on legislation. Green Party support on a bill will allow it to pass through, while their opposition on it will make the PPP take it back for review.
Oh, my.....they're fairly close to losing a no-confidence vote, aren't they? I mean, all they need to do is to get the Greens to line up behind the Conservatives on something and they're back on the hustings again.
63460
Not likely, the PPP control more than half of Parliament, Even if the Greens and the Conservatives got together, they'd never be able to get enough votes to pull it off. Not to mention, a number of the minor parties would throw their support behind the PPP if a vote ever came up.
Well gosh. PPP rules more than half of the Parliament. Like the little chart, all those yellow dots. Didn't know there was a Pinkie Party. So the Greens are basically a neutral Party, but they have enough power to keep the PPP in line?
63537
Certainly, a bill needs a 60 per cent majority to pass. The way Parliament is set up now, the PPP can't pass a bill without Green party support. Even the minor parties that are left leaning wouldn't give them enough of a majority to pass legislation. If they don't have Green Party support, no law passes.
Of course, 100 is also an election year, and is subject to change.
63467
Point taken. That being said, all they need is for a baffling crisis or two to come along to upset the applecart. A crisis like the sudden reappearance of cutie marks.......
Go PPP!! I am a democrat myself.
So I wonder how CM's are going to play into politics in an election year?
can we get a list of what each party's agenda is i would really like to know the pinkie party agenda
Sort of reminds me of the US government.
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/099/3/1/chart_by_guesswork00-d4vlrmx.jpg
63928 I am a US citizen and active voter, and I can safely say this would be 100% accurate if the subtitles were swapped and the yellow were changed to red. Kind of sad for the "people's choice" in government...
75300 I live in Sacramento CA! USA wut wut! I'm no big fan of conservative politicians, but let me assure you that all governments everywhere in world history have been like this. There's no way to gt around it. Just look at political news from other countries, it's all the same wealthy assholes everywhere. As for USA, dems are the same, they just differ on social issues. Example: nobody has done a single thing about the illegal banking practices that caused the recession, because the mega bankers are their friends. They send their kids to the same schools and all belong to the same yacht clubs. "Communism" and other such "alternatives" to our system are just as corrupt. There is no alternative. It is always a plutocracy no matter where you go and it always will be. What is a plutocracy? Government by the rich, for the rich. The question is: how well can they hide it? Mitt Romney is going to lose because he can't hide it at all. LOL @ $10,000 bet.
75300>>75444
Oh you yanks and your Two Party system.
Even in this set up (which is a rare one, smaller parties don't usually have this many seats), the PPP has a technical majority, but it's a tiny majority. so they need to cooperate with other parties to get legislation passed.
75462 Actually the two party thing is a misconception, since each American party itself is like a mini parliament, in which many differing sub-parties must find concensus. That supposedly happens during the primaries, when the parties find out, for example, what percentage of their members are Ron Paul isolationists or Santorum Bible-bigots. Whoops, did I really just say that? I'd love to see what would happen if we switched to a Commonwealth style system. You can keep the monarchy though. I know the Queen has symbolic duties as Head of State, but I think she could probably wave demurely at just as many ribbon cutting ceremonies without soaking up all those millions of pounds of taxpayer money. In America you dont get paid that much unless you can at least dunk a basketball.
Just kidding, America has its aristocratic dynasties, too, we just don't like to admit it.
75476
America: freaked out about getting taxed, revolted, then the situation did not changed, if you just waited, things would have worked out for you anyway. Maybe you'd be more like your Canadian neighbours.
You lot aren't as different as you'd like to think.
75479 Well to paraphrase Huntington, the West needs to stick together or we'll get steamrolled one by one by the Chinese, Russians, and Muslims. Or is that a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I like you Wheller; you're a sharp cookie. Even though you hated my story, which also makes you a Philistine.
75479 I want to add that if Canada was an economic and military superpower, they would act just as douchetastic as the US does, or the Brits, French, Dutch did, etc etc etc. Canadian politicians aren't any more moral than anyone else's, eh?
75490
It was a tongue in cheek joke, my point was that if you'd stayed as a British Dominion, the average American would be more polite.
75493 I'm inclined to agree, though polite in speech and polite in action are two different things. We'd probably have better grammar, but the guy with the gun is still the guy with the gun, whether he says please and thank you while stealing your cotton/silver/tea/oil/spices.
That was a tongue in cheek joke, too, by the way. California liberals like me are basically just Europeans by another name. I think all the Western countries are cool and I ain't hating on a Western bro. Unless you're a chav or a pikey. You got those down under?
75444 Yeah, it's sad how corrupt both sides of our government are. It seems like just when one side shows some extreme blunder, the other one comes right on in and ups the ante of stupidity.
75493 I also agree with you, I doubt that the final outcome would have been bad if America hadn't fought for its freedom, but most people are too patriotic (<<read: ignorant) to admit that. But, history's history, and I make do with what I have.
And to both of you, stop arguing about one government being better or worse than the other. They operate on different systems, and, whether or not we like it, each one will always have its own perks and flaws. But before we can progress, we just need to learn to accept that other people have different viewpoints. I'm all for arguments, but how about on better topics than "who has a worse governmental system?"
Love and Tolerate!
75493 Oh yeah, I also wanted to know, are all of your stories in the same sort of timeline? To rephrase, should I read all of them to understand the backstory to the current storyline? Because I absolutely love "The Parliament of Dreams" and I want to know more about what happened in the past!
75633 Discussions like this make us better writers.
75640
You don't have to read them. They do take place in the same universe, but they aren't needed for understanding.
Though if you've been enjoying Parliament of Dreams, you will likely enjoy the others as well.
76288 I started reading them, and I am enjoying them very much!!! I started reading before you had replied, and now I'm really curious as to how the events of The Kindness of Strangers will end up fitting in with everything. Keep up the awesome writing!