[-empyre-] the global Trump effect

[William Bain]

Renate asked about Barcelona (province, I suppose, as well ascity) in relation to adjusting to current political trends (snip) “not onlyTrump per se but this general shift right.” I’ll be very general here and I’drecommend checking wikipedia for things like *2016 spanish general election*and other obvious terms. As in the United States there are effortshere to do away with the hegemony of the two party system. In the Spanish stateone might say that the Partido Popular is analogous to the GOP and the PartidoSocialista Obrero Espanyol to the Democratic party—at least in terms of the electoralsystem. A difference is that smaller and less voted parties here can get seatsin the two chamber congress due to a different system of proportionalrepresentation. As an aside let me state the obvious that Empyre’s recent mentionof the USelectoral college might be examined in such PR terms. But briefly the 2016 Spanishgeneral election is of interest bc the two major parties were forced tonegotiate with new new *smaller* parties before a govt could be formed.Wikipedia for more.Barcelona, you’ll recall, is the capital city of theautonomous region of Catalonia.There are 17 ARs, governed by autonomous statutes (Wikipedia). The Catalanindependence movement is similar to that of Scotland. This is perhapsinteresting for the Empyre discussion regarding moves to alter two-partytradition. Very briefly the Popular Unity Candidacy (Wikipedia) a small leftwing party favoring town hall style government *and* independence is animportant coalition partner in the Catalan government—based in the capital cityof Barcelona but of course with membership throughout the AR with similarparties throughout the Spanish state. This is a small part of the storyobviously but I think the relationships to your question and to PR worldwide makeit of some interest. The link below is old but maybe useful. Best wishes,William 
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/pere-vilanova/catalonia-spain-deadlock>


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