Increasing polarization, fractured parliaments
8 de octubre de 2019

The increasing polarization and the loss of voters has derived in the emergence of extremist groups and parliamentary fragmentation. The legislators are unable to commit to passing the necessary laws and budgets, creating increasing divided democracies and less cooperative governments. This blend has created the dissatisfaction of the voters. 

As candidates continue to defeat the beliefs they or their parties have, voters consider the less receptive. When they faced with the challenge of removing them from position, they are faced with the less suitable for the major U.S. parties in the general and midterm elections. 

Many voters, specially the youngers and the less enrolled,feel that the U.S. government is not effective and does not reflect their views and values. The candidates are more worried with aligning with the party and making sure their politics stand out than for the general good of the electorate. 

As voters start to feel to feel marginalized by the parties who are in power and tire of empty campaign promises, with few or any results, search groups that are making changes to the rules of the current policy. They want real solutions for the problems that we have to face. Then,the voters search for alternatives to be heard in government, and, in the recent elections, this has translated into a tendency for the groups that, despite being more extreme, at least they are saying something, instead of talking in circles. The voters want that the statu quo to be shaken, given that the election of the candidates has proved ineffective and, in front of that, the best option passes by choosing those who are suggesting changes. 

In countries like Spain, those that are emerging are conservative, like Vox, although has obtained more humble results (24 seats and slightly more than 10% of the votes) than parties with similar values from other European nations. 

At the other extreme, as an alternative for other disenchanted voters,we find the separatist movements of the Basque Country and Catalonia, where tensions have reached their peak. In this context, legislators and world leaders look forward to the November 10th elections with great expectation. 


Trump success is connected with the fact that he has strong point of views, which were echoed by the voters. 


In the US, on the other hand, the new groups emerging from this polarising environment have socialist ideals and pursue welfare state objectives. In countries like Denmark or Norway, such policies have been successful for decades, but it is more difficult that happen the same in a country with the size of the U.S.A, many of whose cities are five times the size of the whole of Denmark. This large conceivable of aging population practise an enormous pressure on Social Security and the health system, which increases the debt to continue with these programs. Also, citizens are increasingly extending the academic stage to get higher education degrees, which means that the age at which they accede the labour market and start paying taxes is later. 

In 2016 elections, the country and the world were shocked when Donald Trump was elected president, over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Most of the voters and political leaders thought that it was too extreme, so the possibility of his winning wasn’t taken seriously by the media. This caused an additional impact, when, indeed, he took with the electoral college and the presidence. 

The president Trump, with his resolutions, has been shown in all moment like a disputatious head of state. His unconventional methods of mass communication and his personality have produced an intense and permanent scrutiny. The initiation of impeachment trials and multiple investigations is unprecedented, and to some extent, unjustified. Approval rates over his (almost) three years in office have fluctuated on the portrait and media coverage and different levels of honesty. Apart from that, his success is linked with the fact that Trump has strong points of view, which were echoed by the voters,who felt that he were talking in a convenient way throughout the campaign. Beliefs that after has maintained when he had to translating them into policy. 

Nevertheless, not all groups or leaders who have gained popularity through this strategy are revealing adequate solutions.  This won’t prevent that, if candidates continue to alienate their voters and adapt their suffrage to the partisan line, from causing more factures in seats from which the could be marking real differences.

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