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France is not the EU. This doesn't happen in other European countries because there are rules and proper times to make proper campaigns. I don't even think this is a good thing to joke about Americans because what was done in France was just plain stupid
Didn't the Netherlands have a year of five premiers?
Also, Tories, y'all might want to disown them but the Brits are still euros as far as everyone else reckons, save maybe for a particularly unionist canadian or aussie.
Y'all might have rules about it but that doesn't change that snap elections basically guarantee no incentive to figure anything out because you can always just hit the do-over button until someone's base is the last one standing without turnout fatigue and someone secures an outright majority or a purely ideological coalition.
The idea of governing coalitions is kinda old fashioned anyways, just hold a STAR or approval vote for each of the cabinet positions including for premier and voilà, now you never have to engage in horse trading just to form a standing government, and the stress of negotiations can be reserved for law making or inter-departmental cabinet affairs.
We finally got rid of the previous prime minister after 12 years, what 5 premiers did I miss?
France is great at revolutions.
Sounds unstable and scary.
edit: calm down, I'm sure 90% of the time it's a much better system than the US, but the way it is described in the title does not sound stable.
I've read that in Belgium (the worst offendor in this regard), the regional governments have so much power that not having a national government for a year or so isn't much of a problem.
Belgium is a federal country, like Germany or the US. The regions have control over some things, not everything. Plus the current federal government stays as caretaker until a new government is formed.
Better an unstable government than an unstable guy at the lead.
Not everything has to be a zero sum game
I'd argue that political stability consists of and depends on at least rule of law, separation of powers and democratic representation. The EU and its member still have a lot to progress in this regard, though. Coalition building is kind of a comprise towards building pluralistic quasi-consensus based decision-making.
IMO, coalition political systems have the potential to politically deal better with long-term issues as small parties can influence governments beyond a single term. Green parties, but unfortunately also far-right parties, for example can thus push for their topics.
The US also had a coalition, the National Unity Party during its Civil War.