On the 13th of May, NRW (Nordrhein-Westfalen, the state where I live) had its round of elections. In essence, the elections were for the next round of representatives for NRW. In Germany you cast your vote for a party, rather than a specific politician. This doesn't keep the streets from being coated in pictures of smiling faces, urging you silently to vote for their party. For a few weeks, every sign post, telephone pole and street lamp had at least one poster. They differed in content, but they all tried to show the relative merits of voting for one party above another. I had a hard time seeing how these could help at all. When I asked my host mom how she would vote, she told me that she switches off voting for the SPD (think democrats) and Grüne (green party) every year; so as to vote for the best option to defeat the CDU (think republicans.) It seems to me that each German citizen has a party they feel allied to, and no amount of posters will change their mind.
Either way, this election was interesting to me because of the emergence of the Piraten Partei (pirate party.) They're a relatively new political party that advocated net neutrality, transparent government workings, free education and drug policy reforms -- among other things. They've become quite popular with voters of my generation, and are slowly gaining prominence in Europe. If political parties were part of the stock exchange, I'd put my money on the pirates.
The other, more obvious reason that these elections interested me is the way they are run. Unlike our relatively stagnant two-party system, Germany advocates multiple parties that each have a chance to gain power. The country is not stuck voting for one party or the other, but can choose to vote for third parties like the pirates -- and can even expect to earn representatives by doing so.
The chart below (click to expand) shows the results of the elections. The main chart shows percentage of the vote, with CDU and SPD coming in at the top, as should be expected. The chart on the top right shows -as far as I can tlel- the change in voting behavior as compared to the last round. It appears that the biggest loser is the CDU, who has lost an amazing amount of support, whereas the Pirates scored a huge win over the last round of votes. Finally, the chart on the bottom right shows the breakdown of representative seats. My favorite, the pirates, won a total of 20 seats -- proof that multiple parties can coexist in systems like that of Germany.
The other, more obvious reason that these elections interested me is the way they are run. Unlike our relatively stagnant two-party system, Germany advocates multiple parties that each have a chance to gain power. The country is not stuck voting for one party or the other, but can choose to vote for third parties like the pirates -- and can even expect to earn representatives by doing so.
The chart below (click to expand) shows the results of the elections. The main chart shows percentage of the vote, with CDU and SPD coming in at the top, as should be expected. The chart on the top right shows -as far as I can tlel- the change in voting behavior as compared to the last round. It appears that the biggest loser is the CDU, who has lost an amazing amount of support, whereas the Pirates scored a huge win over the last round of votes. Finally, the chart on the bottom right shows the breakdown of representative seats. My favorite, the pirates, won a total of 20 seats -- proof that multiple parties can coexist in systems like that of Germany.
Hopefully this political talk hasn't been extremely boring. To me, it's fascinating. I've been wondering about the merits of our two-party system, and Germany's solution is interesting to me. It also intruiges me to see how the people around me think, and to be able to realize that the voters here aren't all that different from my home town. I've crossed the world, and the political sentiments of my friends and neighbors have remained exactly the same.
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