One of the great minds of our time.

I don't think there are any examples of a parliament with more than 500 members actually working properly

Define "working properly".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembl%C3%A9e_Nationale

Ideally 1000, realistically the cube root rule (600some).

The attachment of many white Americans to the concept is... er... well...

Well, I'd say it's Americans in general. And yes, this is stupid.

Race does not exist. Period.

(obviously, I was a cleggmaniac... )

And he's [Fälldin] still alive. I met two of his grandkids at the Centre Youth Congress. ^^

Have Fälldin made any statements on what he thinks of the Centre Party of today (certainly much more right-wing than in his time)? And what is the feeling amongst older Centre members in general about the current direction of the party?

Nope, he's not made any statements about the party for a decade as far as I'm aware off. But he's very old and frail. Older Centre Party members have not been happy about the party's direction, but that's a given.

BTW, do the constituencies correspond to counties? Or portions of counties? Or groups of counties? Or is there no relationship at all?

They correspond to the counties, but the three most populus counties (Stockholm, Västra Götaland, and Skåne) are split into smaller constituencies.

Ah, I see. Makes sense.

Yes (non-racist)

If you think the 22nd Amendment is a serious problem in the US constitution, you're completely missing the point.

Cathcon.

What Gully and Pit said.

Surprised Denmark is this low. Things are definitely getting worse, especially in Copenhagen.

The high end countries are the ones you would expect, apart from Italy which I thought would be on the same level as France.

Yeah, Italy is a major sh*thole in terms of homophobia (and other forms of socon-inspired hatefulness).

So with your double Franco-Italian background what would you say are the reasons for this? Given that strong elements of unreformed macho-culture is not reserved for Italy alone.

Compared to France and Spain I would say that at least two things are worse in Italy: the political class and the media. So a couple of hypothesis.

- The way the media portrays gays? 
- No political action against homophobia? (but have there been any in France?)
- The Vatican influence.

Catholic influence certainly bears a great deal of responsibility, both directly (because people are ready to justify their homophobia based on the Church's position) and in a more pernicious way (there are many Italian PDers from DC background, and these people will make sure the left never does anything serious about that). Generally speaking, the political class doesn't give a sh*t about homophobia, between Berlusconi's bigoted jokes and the left's silence on every serious issue.

On the other hand, you have people like Vendola or Sicily's new President Rosario Crocetta, both gay and to the left of PD, who are successful and charismatic politicians very popular among their southern and conservative electorate. Hopefully this might help a bit in the long term.

Let's pray these numbers hold...

Left : Joe Manchin

Yikes.

If Brian Schweitzer weren't supportive of the leftist view on a couple social issues it would be him. Manchin would get my vote over Santorum any day of the week and that should tell you something. If we included dead politicians folks like Harry Truman would be as far left that I would go.

You hate Santorum because he's a dirty Papist?

He's passed. It was peaceful, at home, and with a minimum of pain, thank God.

You have my deepest condolences. I'm not sure if that's the word I should be using for this situation, but considering the kind of relationship you had with him it probably is. I hope you are not suffering too much.

My suggestions: Mexico '06, South Africa '09, France '02, Canada '11, Bradford West by-election '12 ( )

I'm really enjoying this decidedly non-academic side of your political analysis, Hash. Great work.

Canada'11 would be a pretty depressing exercise for Hash, but it's definitely worth it, indeed!

Or if you want to smile a bit, you can do 1993 instead.

[Italy 2013]

Gonna slow your browser down, but it's damn worth it:

Italy 2013

Berlusconi's policies, platform, goals, vision etc since 1994:


Berlusconi's record since 1994:


The delirious crowds at Bersani rallies:


Meanwhile, Mario Monti's speeches:


And Grillo's speeches


Bersani's platform summarized:


A few months before, when Berlusconi was below 20%:


When Berlusconi started closing in in the polls:


When the exit polls came out:


Our reaction to the results showing Berlusconi ahead:


Our reaction to the results showing the left barely ahead:


What we were like all day/night watching results:


What the Berlusconi fans were like:


Phew, the left eeked out a win. The 'victory' speech:


The PD campaign summarized


No, this is more accurate:


Matteo Renzi meeting Bersani the next day:


When we realized what the hell just happened:


Bersani: "damn I kind of screwed this thing up no?"


Also, the Grillists did really well. Grillo was like:


We were like:


Angela Merkel was like:


Our reaction to the whole damn thing:


What everybody else thought of Italy the next day:


Bersani to the Grillists after the election:


But the Grillists were like:


When we asked Bersani about a grand coalition with Silvio:


But then the PD formed a government with Berlusconi. We were like:


What we thought when Enrico Letta announced his government:


And Berlusconi was like:


Further requests?

The PP?

Yeah, I don't much like the idea of "ethnic history" in general (though I understand its meaning in the American context). This is much more ridiculous, for obvious reasons.

So what are we doing with this?

Unfortunately, I won't have enough time to update it until May 25 or so. Sorry.

[alcohol]

Yeah, a police state and (minimal) eugenics are pretty bad, but there's no contest compared to uberplutocracy, gender oppression or state-sponsored racial lynching.

A police state where alcohol is banned?  Dude, no freaking way!
Before anyone thinks this is a joke, let me note that given how horrible all of these choices are, the availability of alcohol is VITAL to surviving said places.

I'm sorry, I really don't get it.

Prodi has reportedly left the PD.

Wow, well done. He's far too good for this bunch of morons.

More trolling by Francois 'recession' Hollande.

I must have missed the fantastic economic boom Britain is experiencing right now under David "f**k the poor" Cameron.

ConCon validates the entire gay marriage law:
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/le-conseil-constitutionnel-valide-le-mariage-pour-tous_326516.html#xtor=EPR-51-%5Balerteinfo%5D-20130517-%5Bbouton%5D-%5Bfacebook

...and now Hollande signed it into law!

The 1994 map gives me nightmares.

Well, Bildt was such an epic fail.

[Centre-right]

Since I'm suppouse to study for my finals, I made some maps...

Left-Right result for Sweden's 29 constituencies' since 1973. (First unicameral general election) 

Centre-right = M + C + Fp (+ Kd)
Centre-left = S + V (+ Mp)












The 1994 map gives me nightmares.

Very interesting! Some day I'm going to study Swedish politics in greater detail, that's really fascinating!

BTW, do the constituencies correspond to counties? Or portions of counties? Or groups of counties? Or is there no relationship at all?