Talk:Minority government

message: I can see that there are arguments raging back and forth over a number of points on this article.  Here are some of the points I would like to add a comment on:
===Largest Party===
I have changed the sentence on the largest party to "In a minority situation the head of the largest party is usually asked to form a government" since a smaller party could be asked to form a government if it was better equipped to do so  ( an example of how that nearly happened in the UK can be seen after the 1974 General Election (February)
===First Past the Post===
First Past the Post is ridiculous and inaccurate name for the system described.  However it is also the commonly accepted name - sometimes English doesn't make sense.
===Continental Europe===
I am unconfortable with the line "Countries in Continental Europe mainly have proportional representation, and rarely have a single party that controls a majority of the parliament." since it is not entirely accurate.  Many of the countries in Europe have their own issues: for example the French government usually has a majority in Parliament, but different Presidents and Prime Ministers can lead to a system of "co-habitation" which is very different from coalition / minority government (and has nothing to do with PR).  Belgium also has coalition government, but this is largely due to the Flemish and Wallonian parts having completely different political parties.  Other countries that I know less about all have their own issues, but blaming it all on PR seems a little bit unfair (as it is often not the culprit).
Coalitions also mean different things in different countries.  In Italy for example coalitions are often formed before elections, unlike the UK where they are formed after.  (So an Italian coalition is more like a political party)
:I've moved the line " Countries in Continental Europe mainly  have proportional representation, and rarely have a single party that controls a majority of the parliament." per the arguments above Captainj 18:42, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Key issues 

message: I am unconfortable with the line "Countries in Continental Europe mainly have proportional representation, and rarely have a single party that controls a majority of the parliament." since it is not entirely accurate.  Many of the countries in Europe have their own issues: for example the French government usually has a majority in Parliament, but different Presidents and Prime Ministers can lead to a system of "co-habitation" which is very different from coalition / minority government (and has nothing to do with PR).  Belgium also has coalition government, but this is largely due to the Flemish and Wallonian parts having completely different political parties.  Other countries that I know less about all have their own issues, but blaming it all on PR seems a little bit unfair (as it is often not the culprit).
Coalitions also mean different things in different countries.  In Italy for example coalitions are often formed before elections, unlike the UK where they are formed after.  (So an Italian coalition is more like a political party)
:I've moved the line " Countries in Continental Europe mainly  have proportional representation, and rarely have a single party that controls a majority of the parliament." per the arguments above Captainj 18:42, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Continental Europe

message: I have moved these lines to the talk page as they clearly violate Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words.  Please find someone who has said these criticisms and had them published.
Many criticize minority governments arguing they create deadlock within the government, which prevents and slows changes. Others, however, view minority governments as beneficial for creating a more diverse government that reflects more than one viewpoint.
Captainj 22:45, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Criticism

message: The details about the Labour minority government in the Welsh Assembly is rather out of date now. I've updated the information about the current state of the Assembly and the new Labour-Plaid coalition, for someone with more experience to decide whether it's still worthy of note on this page or not.
AlbertSimon 21:06, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wales 

message: :However, a minority government tends to be less arrogant because it often requires compromise between the different parties to ensure the passage of legislation.
Arrogance is a value judgement; perhaps another more factual term should be used here. Also, "tends", "often" = weasel words. --- Arancaytar - avá artanhé (reply) 13:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Value statements 

message: The following run-on sentence could be improved: 
:There the long governing Social-Democrats have governed with more or, mostly, less formal support from other parties; in the mid-20th century from Agrarians, after 1968 from Communists, and more recently from Greens and ex-Communists, and have thus been able to retain executive power and (in practice) legislative initiative.
Particularly the phrase: ... governed with more or, mostly, less formal support ...
216.16.228.6 (talk) 21:38, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Poorly worded sentence

message: "less arrogant"? What crappy English   —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.221.3.207 (talk) 03:26, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  less arrogant 

message: :Please discuss other details related to the proposal here
* Merge. There is no real reason to have separate articles on what is essentially the same thing. If anything, hung parliament can be covered in both the minority government and coalition government articles.Agent 86 (talk) 20:11, 7 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It seems to depend on where you live. The .uk term is "minority government", the .ca term is "minority parliament" (I infer from the discussion - am I right??).  It certainly seems to be the case that "hung parliament" is a UK term for the period that begins with the election result that no party has a majority, and ends with the formation of a minority government or a coalition government or another election. Did the .au press use this term recently?  --Red King (talk) 14:15, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion

message: It just needs the rest of the Parliamentary systems added. This was moved from the First Past The Post discussion page.
Country	Lower house             	Total Seats	Threshold to formMajority government	
       	House of Representatives	150        	76                                  	
       	House of Commons        	308        	155                                 	
       	House of Assembly       	30         	16                                  	
       	House of Representatives	120        	61                                  	
       	House of Commons        	650        	326                                 	
       	                        	           	                                    	
This may convey it in simplest terms.
Essentially. If you know the total # of seats within the lower chamber, divide by two, and that is the "post".  Any party which obtains seats greater than the "post" number (i.e. 50%+1) would be a majority government.  If a party with the greatest number of seats however has lower than the "post", then it is a minority government. To this day I still hear people in utter confusion with the UK election.  This breaks it down in simplest terms.
CaribDigita (talk) 19:51, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I think this chart would be useful elsewhere, perhaps at a page for Westminster style parliaments. Ratibgreat (talk) 18:24, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Would a list such as this make it clearer? 

message: Wikipedia generally doesn't like the c word because what is current today is history tomorrow. Which of us guarantees forever to keep this list in its entirety up to the minute accurate? WP:Wikipedia is not a newspaper. I suggest strongly that the table be deleted as unmaintable. Meanwhile, I will prefix it with :template:as of. --Red King (talk) 20:58, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Table of current (sic!) minority governments? Is this wise? 

message: Is ireland not currently a minority government? Himynameisslimshadyspuppy (talk) 16:28, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ireland