Parliamentary System in Your Country

[rebornfree]

I'm in the UK where we have several political parties, the one with most votes forming a Government (currently the Labour Party) and the rest in opposition. The leader of the largest opposition party (currently Conservative) is the main spokesperson for the opposition and forms a Shadow Cabinet.

Although many issues are debated on party lines, moral issues, such as abortion, gay rights and assisted dying are not on party political lines. Our MPs have free votes. I think this prevents too much of a left/right divide and is a great blessing. I'm curious to know if this is the same in other Western democracies so would love to hear from those in other countries. Comments from fellow Brits are welcome too, of course! Thank you in advance for any replies.

 

[Stopped_lurking]

I'm in the UK where we have several political parties, the one with most votes forming a Government (currently the Labour Party) and the rest in opposition. The leader of the largest opposition party (currently Conservative) is the main spokesperson for the opposition and forms a Shadow Cabinet.

Although many issues are debated on party lines, moral issues, such as abortion, gay rights and assisted dying are not on party political lines. Our MPs have free votes. I think this prevents too much of a left/right divide and is a great blessing. I'm curious to know if this is the same in other Western democracies so would love to hear from those in other countries. Comments from fellow Brits are welcome too, of course! Thank you in advance for any replies.

Having the ability to choose from more than 2 parties really changes the game. Here's a plot of the swedish parties on a 2D plot, with economic policy (vänster - left and höger - right) on the horizontal axis and the GAL-TAN (Green Alternative Libertarian - Traditional Authoritarian Nationalist) values on the vertical axis.

So in Sweden, yes I would say that there are some moral issues in party politics. However, it is most often possible to find a party that is a good fit. I have marked in red the previous government (left-aligned), and in blue the present minority government (they govern with the support of SD, right-aligned). As you can see, the only political space not occcupied are the traditionalist, hardcore leftists.

NB! the GAL-TAN scale is not without its detractors, I'm just using it as a proxy for the cultural dimension. Also this is Sweden, you'll find plenty of people in M (Moderaterna) that are pretty progressive on a global scale.

 

[Larniavc]

I'm in the UK where we have several political parties, the one with most votes forming a Government (currently the Labour Party) and the rest in opposition. The leader of the largest opposition party (currently Conservative) is the main spokesperson for the opposition and forms a Shadow Cabinet.

Although many issues are debated on party lines, moral issues, such as abortion, gay rights and assisted dying are not on party political lines. Our MPs have free votes. I think this prevents too much of a left/right divide and is a great blessing. I'm curious to know if this is the same in other Western democracies so would love to hear from those in other countries. Comments from fellow Brits are welcome too, of course! Thank you in advance for any replies.

Fellow Brit here. Can confirm that moral issues seem far less under the Whip than it seems to be in America.

 

[rebornfree]

Thank you both. I have to log out now but will reply later.

 

[Seraphim .]

I'm from England but live in the USA.

You have to remember as well the coalition years, when Cameron and Clegg were in power. A lot now speculate the next govt will be some kind of Reform-Con coalition or pact based coalition (think of the DUP-Con pact in the recent past around 2017ish under May).

I think there are likely to be more coalitions in the next few years.

 

[Larniavc]

I'm from England but live in the USA.

You have to remember as well the coalition years, when Cameron and Clegg were in power. A lot now speculate the next govt will be some kind of Reform-Con coalition or pact based coalition (think of the DUP-Con pact in the recent past around 2017ish under May).

I think there are likely to be more coalitions in the next few years.

The best outcome I could hope for would be a Lib-Lab coalition.

 

[Stopped_lurking]

Having the ability to choose from more than 2 parties really changes the game. Here's a plot of the swedish parties on a 2D plot, with economic policy (vänster - left and höger - right) on the horizontal axis and the GAL-TAN (Green Alternative Libertarian - Traditional Authoritarian Nationalist) values on the vertical axis.

So in Sweden, yes I would say that there are some moral issues in party politics. However, it is most often possible to find a party that is a good fit. I have marked in red the previous government (left-aligned), and in blue the present minority government (they govern with the support of SD, right-aligned). As you can see, the only political space not occcupied are the traditionalist, hardcore leftists.

NB! the GAL-TAN scale is not without its detractors, I'm just using it as a proxy for the cultural dimension. Also this is Sweden, you'll find plenty of people in M (Moderaterna) that are pretty progressive on a global scale.

I'll try to expound a little on the moral issue, most moral issues play a small part in the political discussion in Sweden apart for two, Law and order and Immigration.

Source: https://novus.se/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/novusviktigastefraganaugusti2025.pdf

Table. The 10 most important issues according to voters, augusti 2025. Respondents could choose as many issues as they wanted, so the percentages should be read as "63% of voters think healthcare is ONE OF THE MOST important political issues".
2025 augusti		2025 augusti
Pos.	Fråga/Issue	%	English translation	Moral issue?
1	Sjukvården	63%	Healthcare
2	Lag och ordning	49%	Law and order	Y
3	Skola och utbildning	49%	Schools and education
4	Invandring/integration	43%	Immigration/integration	Y
5	Äldreomsorg	35%	Care of the elderly
6	Landets ekonomi	34%	National economy
7	Klimatet	34%	Climate	Y?
8	Sysselsättning/arbetslösheten/jobben	33%	Employment/unemployment/the jobs
9	Försvaret	32%	Defense
10	Miljön	28%	Environment	Y?

However, even if the voters find those questions important the parties are close enough in regards to Law and order that it is not a election winner. The hard on immigration question is almost completely cornered by the SD party (Sverigedemokraterna, Sweden Democrats). Both observations are my own conclusions, and I'm not an unbiased observer.

In the PDF there are also the complete table (Tabell 3, in total 28 issues) moral associated questions (my opinion): Social security is in position 14, Equality in 17, Redistribution politics in 21, Family politics in 23 and Animal rights in 25.

Interestingly, last is Integrity issues in 28th position. We are a obviously a very trusting people

It's actually kind of hard to define what is an moral issue for some of these categories.

Sorry for the bad formatting.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

I'm in the UK where we have several political parties, the one with most votes forming a Government (currently the Labour Party) and the rest in opposition. The leader of the largest opposition party (currently Conservative) is the main spokesperson for the opposition and forms a Shadow Cabinet.

Although many issues are debated on party lines, moral issues, such as abortion, gay rights and assisted dying are not on party political lines. Our MPs have free votes. I think this prevents too much of a left/right divide and is a great blessing. I'm curious to know if this is the same in other Western democracies so would love to hear from those in other countries. Comments from fellow Brits are welcome too, of course! Thank you in advance for any replies.

Well here in the USA the current administration is using some Christians and their unwavering commitment to Christian Nationalism, its Seven Mountain Mandate along with Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation, to reshape our Democracy into an Authoritarian Theocracy. This forces a deep divide by poisoning the harvest and deceiving, even the Elect.

I believe some will understand what I am talking about.

Blessings

 

[Seraphim .]

The best outcome I could hope for would be a Lib-Lab coalition.

While things can shift at the drop of a hat, electoral calculus shows that even if you combined all predicted Lab and LD seats, they would still yield a smaller no than predicted Reform UK seats alone.

General Election Prediction

LAB	34.7%	412	21.2%	45	119	264
LIB	12.6%	72	13.6%	28	64	94

..

Reform

14.7%

5

30.3%

179

368

454

I honestly never thought there'd be a time when the Conservatives were predicted to win just 36 seats.

 

[Larniavc]

While things can shift at the drop of a hat, electoral calculus shows that even if you combined all predicted Lab and LD seats, they would still yield a smaller no than predicted Reform UK seats alone.

General Election Prediction

LAB	34.7%	412	21.2%	45	119	264
LIB	12.6%	72	13.6%	28	64	94

..

Reform

14.7%

5

30.3%

179

368

454

I honestly never thought there'd be a time when the Conservatives were predicted to win just 36 seats.

I dunno how you can predict a general election from here.

 

[Seraphim .]

If a snap election were to be called now, those are the predicted results.

 

[rebornfree]

Thanks for replying everyone. Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner.

Having the ability to choose from more than 2 parties really changes the game. Here's a plot of the swedish parties on a 2D plot, with economic policy (vänster - left and höger - right) on the horizontal axis and the GAL-TAN (Green Alternative Libertarian - Traditional Authoritarian Nationalist) values on the vertical axis.

So in Sweden, yes I would say that there are some moral issues in party politics. However, it is most often possible to find a party that is a good fit. I have marked in red the previous government (left-aligned), and in blue the present minority government (they govern with the support of SD, right-aligned). As you can see, the only political space not occcupied are the traditionalist, hardcore leftists.

NB! the GAL-TAN scale is not without its detractors, I'm just using it as a proxy for the cultural dimension. Also this is Sweden, you'll find plenty of people in M (Moderaterna) that are pretty progressive on a global scale.

Thank you for the graph. You have quite a wide range of parties to choose from, as you say, except traditional left. Yes, I can understand that your Moderaterna Party would be regarded as progressive compared to other countries, as Sweden is seen as being towards the left of the spectrum of democracies. Is that a fair point?
Do you get many divisions over issues? I get the impression that you are a peaceful country and politics does not really divide people.

I'll try to expound a little on the moral issue, most moral issues play a small part in the political discussion in Sweden apart for two, Law and order and Immigration.

Source: https://novus.se/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/novusviktigastefraganaugusti2025.pdf

Table. The 10 most important issues according to voters, augusti 2025. Respondents could choose as many issues as they wanted, so the percentages should be read as "63% of voters think healthcare is ONE OF THE MOST important political issues".
2025 augusti		2025 augusti
Pos.	Fråga/Issue	%	English translation	Moral issue?
1	Sjukvården	63%	Healthcare
2	Lag och ordning	49%	Law and order	Y
3	Skola och utbildning	49%	Schools and education
4	Invandring/integration	43%	Immigration/integration	Y
5	Äldreomsorg	35%	Care of the elderly
6	Landets ekonomi	34%	National economy
7	Klimatet	34%	Climate	Y?
8	Sysselsättning/arbetslösheten/jobben	33%	Employment/unemployment/the jobs
9	Försvaret	32%	Defense
10	Miljön	28%	Environment	Y?

However, even if the voters find those questions important the parties are close enough in regards to Law and order that it is not a election winner. The hard on immigration question is almost completely cornered by the SD party (Sverigedemokraterna, Sweden Democrats). Both observations are my own conclusions, and I'm not an unbiased observer.

In the PDF there are also the complete table (Tabell 3, in total 28 issues) moral associated questions (my opinion): Social security is in position 14, Equality in 17, Redistribution politics in 21, Family politics in 23 and Animal rights in 25.

Interestingly, last is Integrity issues in 28th position. We are a obviously a very trusting people

It's actually kind of hard to define what is an moral issue for some of these categories.
.
Sorry for the bad formatting.

Thanks for this as well. Most of the issues marked as moral issues would probably be party political here in the UK. Things like abortion, gay rights and Assisted Dying (which is currently going through the House of Lords) are ones where MPs have free votes. It's quite interesting to see who votes which way and it's often cross party, although there is a slight trend for the left to be more liberal and the right to be less so, but the issues don't really follow party lines.

You mention 'integrity' being the issue of least concern to the electorate. It's nice that you are trusting as long as no-one is taking advantage of that. I see that you have 'law and order' as second most important. Do you have much crime in Sweden? I've always thought of it as being a low crime country, but I might be wrong.

 

[bèlla]

Well here in the USA the current administration is using some Christians and their unwavering commitment to Christian Nationalism, its Seven Mountain Mandate along with Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation, to reshape our Democracy into an Authoritarian Theocracy. This forces a deep divide by poisoning the harvest and deceiving, even the Elect.

I believe some will understand what I am talking about.

Blessings

This is the most sensible response I’ve seen in a while and wholly correct. I don’t believe they’ll get the theocracy they want and I’m expecting a rug pull.

~bella

 

[rebornfree]

I'm from England but live in the USA.

You have to remember as well the coalition years, when Cameron and Clegg were in power. A lot now speculate the next govt will be some kind of Reform-Con coalition or pact based coalition (think of the DUP-Con pact in the recent past around 2017ish under May).

I think there are likely to be more coalitions in the next few years.

I felt a bit sorry for Ed Miliband when Con/LD were in power. As they already had checks and balances, in the coalition, there wasn't so much for an opposition party to do. One thing I felt strongly about, at that time when coalitions were being discussed, is that any coalition must include the party which had most seats. It would have been undemocratic, imo, if the second and third parties got together.

As for the DUP/Con pact, I think that Theresa May had to give quite a few concessions to keep the DUP onside.

It will be interesting to see if there are more coalitions.

The best outcome I could hope for would be a Lib-Lab coalition.

I think I'd agree, but there seems to be less distinction between the two main parties these days. Last election I couldn't decide who to vote for until the last 24 hours before polling. Atm I'm a bit concerned about what Rachel Reeves is going to do in the Autumn Statement. Some of her measures aren't very left leaning. (Those from other countries - this is where we have had a difference between left and right. Traditionally Labour protecting individuals' rights and the Conservatives not wanting too much government interference.)

While things can shift at the drop of a hat, electoral calculus shows that even if you combined all predicted Lab and LD seats, they would still yield a smaller no than predicted Reform UK seats alone.

General Election Prediction

LAB	34.7%	412	21.2%	45	119	264
LIB	12.6%	72	13.6%	28	64	94

..

Reform

14.7%

5

30.3%

179

368

454

I honestly never thought there'd be a time when the Conservatives were predicted to win just 36 seats.

No, nor did I. Is it the current Conservative leadership or have people not forgiven partygate..... or has Farage tapped into their traditional voter base?

Fellow Brit here. Can confirm that moral issues seem far less under the Whip than it seems to be in America.

Hi there. Yes, absolutely and I am so thankful for it.

 

[rebornfree]

Well here in the USA the current administration is using some Christians and their unwavering commitment to Christian Nationalism, its Seven Mountain Mandate along with Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation, to reshape our Democracy into an Authoritarian Theocracy. This forces a deep divide by poisoning the harvest and deceiving, even the Elect.

I believe some will understand what I am talking about.

Blessings

That's how it appears to us, over here, although I don't really know what the Seven Mountain Mandate is. I get the impression that some people want to impose Christianity, or at least Christian values, by political means rather than by spiritual ones. I'm not sure how you can do that, in a democracy, unless everyone (or the majority?) are Christians and that's unlikely as the Lord said that only a few will find the Way (sadly). I can see that it must be divisive as people may feel that they have to accept conservative political positions in order to become Christians and that Christianity is about imposing your will on other people, whereas the Lord gave Adam and Eve freewill.

This is the most sensible response I’ve seen in a while and wholly correct. I don’t believe they’ll get the theocracy they want and I’m expecting a rug pull.

~bella

Yes, I agree about Maria's post. The Lord's Kingdom is not of this world and I think that some Christians forget that.

 

[Stopped_lurking]

Thanks for replying everyone. Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner.

Thank you for the graph. You have quite a wide range of parties to choose from, as you say, except traditional left. Yes, I can understand that your Moderaterna Party would be regarded as progressive compared to other countries, as Sweden is seen as being towards the left of the spectrum of democracies. Is that a fair point?

Yes, slightly more to the left of the spectrum of democracies, I think.

Do you get many divisions over issues? I get the impression that you are a peaceful country and politics does not really divide people.

In interpersonal relations, almost none at all. The only parties seen as extreme-like, are Vänsterpartiet (V, the Left party, formerly the largest communist party, stopped pushing revolutionary change in 1990) and Sverigedemokraterna (SD, the Sweden democrats, grown out of the far-right in the early 90s but have mellowed in order to be electable). For the other parties there is no animosity at all

Thanks for this as well. Most of the issues marked as moral issues would probably be party political here in the UK. Things like abortion, gay rights and Assisted Dying (which is currently going through the House of Lords) are ones where MPs have free votes.

Abortion is strongly supported and accepted by the swedish public (95% says abortion should be legal in all cases, Support for legal abortion is widespread in many places, especially in Europe). This is my perception too, when Kristdemokraterna (KD, the Christian democrats) tries to make an issue of it they lose support among it's own voters.

Gay rights isn't a feasible political issue to day either, because it has wide popular support. This is just one aspect, same-sex marriage but the support is overwhelming for that too (92%, How people around the world view same-sex marriage). Religious communities are free to determine if they will marry same-sex couples.

Assisted dying is a political question, there is growing political support for starting an inquiry regarding changing the law (it is now illegal), but the minister responsible for the question is from KD, and strongly opposes it. So perhaps after the next election (2026) an inquiry will be started. They normally run for some time, so my guess is that at the earliest it will be a voted upon in 3-4 years or so.

It's quite interesting to see who votes which way and it's often cross party, although there is a slight trend for the left to be more liberal and the right to be less so, but the issues don't really follow party lines.

You mention 'integrity' being the issue of least concern to the electorate. It's nice that you are trusting as long as no-one is taking advantage of that. I see that you have 'law and order' as second most important. Do you have much crime in Sweden? I've always thought of it as being a low crime country, but I might be wrong.

When it comes to crime I would say that there is always a perception that crimes are getting worse, but total reported crime rates are actually quite flat (Anmälda brott).

Mostly because the common crimes don't fluctuate much. However, shootings had a surge in the early 2020s where it increased slightly but for 2024 there was a slight reduction (2023, 121 cases of lethal violence; 2024, 92 cases of lethal violence 92 fall av dödligt våld under 2024). If you couple that with the fact that almost all shootings are reported nationwide it creates a sense of insecurity. Whilst the risk of being a victim of a crime hasn't changed at all. But being shot sucks much worse than having ones bike stolen, so it's not totally irrational