In recent NZ political history (say ~20 years), has NZ politics become noticeably more combative?
I see a lot of articles and things around how American style politics has been making its way here, but I haven’t really followed politics here with any real intent (partly due to age, partly due to cbf-ness).
Seems all the arguments National make in the last few years is just going look what the other guys are doing, that’s terrible, we’ll be doing the opposite of that.
I would say yes, world wide politics is getting more combative.
I think access to information and misinformation are some key drivers. In the past people could vote for the people that helped them. Now politicians (and others) can speak messages to millions all over the world, and the rise of social media means only the more emotional pieces are shared. At the same time all the politician’s past actions and stupid comments are searchable. That naturally leads to divisiveness and an us vs them rhetoric.
I wonder if this will continue to make the respective parties policies more radical, increasing the gap between the “Left” and "Right’, and in a country like NZ, work to kill off the other parties and make it a two party race like the states.
We won’t get a two party race unless we change our parliamentary system. The states have a setup that means you have to vote for a big party or you won’t get any representation. MMP lets us have smaller parties in parliament with some influence. This makes it worthwhile voting for them.
But with that said, that still allows for our parties to become more radical.
Do you think that as the main parties get more radical / not radical enough, we will see some of these smaller parties gain more prominence? Or are the two too well established.
I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think our system allows a smaller party to grow in popularity eventually overtaking a larger party. I just don’t think we have the small party capable of it yet.
I’ve sort of voted “blindly” in the past, and not really looked at each parties policies in depth. I am determined to ensure it’s different this time around. Interested to see which party I land on solely based on policy.
In recent NZ political history (say ~20 years), has NZ politics become noticeably more combative?
I see a lot of articles and things around how American style politics has been making its way here, but I haven’t really followed politics here with any real intent (partly due to age, partly due to cbf-ness).
Seems all the arguments National make in the last few years is just going look what the other guys are doing, that’s terrible, we’ll be doing the opposite of that.
I would say yes, world wide politics is getting more combative.
I think access to information and misinformation are some key drivers. In the past people could vote for the people that helped them. Now politicians (and others) can speak messages to millions all over the world, and the rise of social media means only the more emotional pieces are shared. At the same time all the politician’s past actions and stupid comments are searchable. That naturally leads to divisiveness and an us vs them rhetoric.
With that said, I have no practical solutions.
I wonder if this will continue to make the respective parties policies more radical, increasing the gap between the “Left” and "Right’, and in a country like NZ, work to kill off the other parties and make it a two party race like the states.
We won’t get a two party race unless we change our parliamentary system. The states have a setup that means you have to vote for a big party or you won’t get any representation. MMP lets us have smaller parties in parliament with some influence. This makes it worthwhile voting for them.
But with that said, that still allows for our parties to become more radical.
Do you think that as the main parties get more radical / not radical enough, we will see some of these smaller parties gain more prominence? Or are the two too well established.
I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think our system allows a smaller party to grow in popularity eventually overtaking a larger party. I just don’t think we have the small party capable of it yet.
I’ve sort of voted “blindly” in the past, and not really looked at each parties policies in depth. I am determined to ensure it’s different this time around. Interested to see which party I land on solely based on policy.