Angela's Pesky Election | 63 comments (63 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

I'm guessing its not the Ypsilanti, Michigan speed trap?

What is the rule for forming a government in a German state parliament - a majority of votes cast or a majority of seated representatives?

If its votes cast, there may be a policy range where The Left would sit in opposition but abstain on the vote of confidence and, eg, free their deputies to conscience votes on the state budget.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun May 9th, 2010 at 04:23:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Andreas Ypsilanti? (none / 1)

Majority of votes in parliament that approves the government (and sometimes before that the PM separately). Note that this approving majority is not necessarily a government majority: a party (or individual MPs) might choose to tolerate a minority government.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun May 9th, 2010 at 04:33:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Andreas Ypsilanti? (none / 0)

So for tactical purposes, it's majority of votes actually cast, while for psychological purposes it's majority of seats.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun May 9th, 2010 at 07:06:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

So its a majority after deducting abstentions ... (none / 0)

... you might ask what legislative body would be daft enough to do something like that based on seats, but the vote to squash a filibuster in the US Senate is not 60% of Senators voting but 60% of Senators in the body.

So its the US Senate that is daft enough to do that.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun May 9th, 2010 at 09:43:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: So its a majority after deducting abstentions (none / 0)

No, majority. By government majority, I mean a majority consisting of the representatives of parties that signed a coalition agreement and have ministers in the government. But you can approve a government without being part of it.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon May 10th, 2010 at 02:18:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

So the approving majority has to be a ... (none / 1)

... majority of seats?

IOW, the sole middle ground between joining the government and voting against that government being formed is voting to approve the government without being in it.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Mon May 10th, 2010 at 10:56:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: So the approving majority has to be a ... (4.00 / 2)

More or less. But there can be different levels of this, too:

the minority government and the party tolerating it can sign an agreement (this happened in Hessen), an agreement that may specify some crucial laws which the opposition party will approve too (the annual budgets for example);
or there is just a written agreement between the parties about the government approval vote;
or there is no agreement with an opposition party at all, only a vocal agreement with some opposition MPs, who may or may not be rebels within their party (I have now read on Wikipedia that a minority government in West Berlin in the eighties was such a case, with some freewheeling FDP MPs supporting a CDU minority government).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon May 10th, 2010 at 02:42:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Angela's Pesky Election | 63 comments (63 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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