Just so you know.
Per the 1978 constitution the electoral district is the province (a mostly artificial Jacobin division of the state, with low identitarian strength). The lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies, is elected by the ratio of two base deputies per province (total 100 + 2 per Ceuta and Melilla) plus the rest (250 I believe) apportioned by population (but never less than 1 per province). So some 152 of the 350 deputies are apportioned on a merely administrative basis. The resulting distortion is reflected in this map I borrowed from Tercera Información:
Then the actual vote per province is apportioned using the so-called "d'Hont law", which favors the largest parties a lot. All these distortions are even more dramatically set in stone for the Senate, which allocates 4 senators per province regardless of population and makes them to be three of the most voted list and one from the less voted one. I have no map for this one but must be all in the black-red extremes.
By the way, in the map above, only light grey provinces are balanced: provinces in pink and red shades are over-represented, provinces in grey and black are under-represented. It illustrates how the system concentrates representation in rural provinces with few electors and representatives, forcing the duopoly of representation. It is very similar to that of the USA, for instance but Spain uses semi-proportional representation that allows marginal persistence to third parties; on the other hand the Spanish system aggrandizes the representative distortions of the US federal system but into a non-federal centralist structure as are the provinces (since the 19th century until the 1980s they were the only administrative unit but most have no or very weak historical roots, specially those outside the Castile historical region).
Overall it is very apparent that the system disfavors urban provinces and specially the largest regions/nations: Catalonia and Andalusia. It is very particularly unfavorable for smaller parties with widespread presence. It may not be too disfavorable for some regionalisms, although quite clearly it is not favorable to any the four most consolidated ethnic identities (Galicians, Basques, Catalans and Andalusians).
Well, just so you know how a bipolar political system is established in Spain in spite of semi-proportional representation.
You call that unfair?
ReplyDeleteSure, it is.
Like the elections in Venezuela, where 48% of votes could get 59% of the seats.
It's much worse: in Spain you can get that with 30% alone. And for Senante, really you can do with 20-something, as long as you are still the majority party. The first party takes it all or almost.
ReplyDeleteThe key problem is not that but the fact that rural provinces with no personality are the key players. That detracts from the inter-national fair interaction within the quasi-Iberian engender, because rural Castile is extremely overrepresented. Additionally it also makes impossible for any third party to go beyond marginal representation in the largest provinces, something United Left whines a lot about - with good reason.
The system should be purely proportional and based on historical ethnic realities. But this is a design by Castilians for Greater Castile, so they won't give up without a fight.
That the system should be proportional I can understand. Now, what do you, the internationalist, understand under "historical ethnic realities"?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean according to the Máximo Territorio Euskera Histórico, i.e.
around year 1030
or perhaps you want to go to pre-Celtic times?
I see no sense in that. Just allot the exact percentage according to registered voters for each comunidad. Eventually you can include a legislation that allows people in a provincia to vote on a referendum to leave one comunidad and join another one. But then: where do you stop it? What if a comarca does not want to belong to the province or the comunidad?
"Inter-National" is a composite word meaning "among nations". There's no contradiction between nationalism and internationalism, as long as both are properly understood. Or, as they say: solidarity begins with oneself.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really hate and I think is a tragic error is the Jacobin concept in which "internationalism" becomes just a pretext for imperial nationalism. Rabid Spanish, French, Turkish, Russian and other imperial nationalists hide behind this pretense and dismiss the legitimate claims and unquestionable sovereignty of smaller oppressed nations.
For us Basques belonging by force of arms to a larger and essentially foreign "nation" is simply anti-democratic and a casus belli.
Maju, quizás me expliqué muy mal en inglés: quisiera saber a qué realidades históricas y étnicas te refieres concretamente.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would like to know why one given time and not the other. And on what basis this will be decided by what you say?
Don't you see how arbitrary one would be and not the other?
I mean: you are probably genetically half Basque, if I recall.
What's your mother tongue? Spanish or Euskera? Or both?
You can be sure a lot of people who live in the "previous ethnic realities" (and I have a hunch they would correspond to the best snapshot of Basque territory you can select in time) do not want to belong to a Basque country.
It is the democratic will of peoples, normally built on roots like language, history but specially on the sociological reality, on a really existent community, what makes a nation. For that mere reason Euskal Herria and Catalonia are sovereign nations: because the peoples feel that way.
ReplyDeleteGenetics or even language are not the fundamentals alone, but the willpower of the community. Genetics is in fact absolutely trivial for nation building, language matters more but it is also a reason for forging and keeping a distinct sovereign Basque Nation, otherwise Basque language will die (be murdered).
As for people who do not want to live in the Basque Country, all I can say is: "ancha es Castilla" (Castile is wide, old Castilian phrase, maybe from the Cid's chansons de geste). I am sure that the Basagoitis, López and Ares will be welcome either side of the border they wish to live at. What they are not welcome is as foreign occupation agents, regardless of where they were born or raised. As long as they are here only to impose fascism and foreign occupation they are no better than your average torturer Guardia Civil.
You are with the people or with the invaders. You can (must) choose but you also must assume the consequences. There's nothing gratis.
This I told recently to a Marxist of Jacobin tendencies: there will be no unity of action between the Basque working class and the Spanish working class until the latter stops pretending to be on top and treats us as equals: from sovereign nation to sovereign nation.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is something Basques already know but Spaniards (Castilians-plus) do not. They have to learn this, even if it is the hard way before peace and brotherhood can flourish again.