Andrew Coyne : Quick Hits

Andrew Coyne is back with some quick hits on the biggest myths about MMP.

Parties breeding like rabbits, where Andrew shows that Germany under MMP has approximately the same average number of political parties as those under FPTP (Canada, UK, and the USA).

In unstable governments, Andrew breaks down the number of elections by electoral system.

No. of elections 1945 - 1998

PR: MMP
Germany 14

PR: party list
Italy 14
Norway 14
Finland 14
Netherlands 16
Belgium 17
Sweden 17
Denmark 22

Plurality (first past the post)
United Kingdom 15
Canada 17
Australia 22

Hordes of extremists shows us that the only extreme one-issue party we'll find is the "Party for the Animals" in the Dutch pure PR system.