Do you mainly vote for a party, for a person, or for a political programme ?

[Strear]

I think people tend to vote for many different reasons, but it the end, it's very often the same old song. Socialists vs Republicans here, CDU vs SPD in Germany, Lavour vs Tories in UK, Democrats vs Republicans in USA (see Hubcap, I didn't forget you ).

Of course, it happens that a " non conventional " party ever makes its way to succeed and reach the power. We recently had Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, and years ago I remember Pim Fortuyn list in Netherlands. These made their way through specific condictions, hard living conditions in Greece and at a lesser extent in Spain, Pim Fortuyn's assassination probably " helped " for the victory of his party.

But when " everything's okay ", what makes that people always tend to vote for the same old parties ?

I guess part of it is tradition, When I was 18, my grandpa told me " In the family, we always voted for the communists, you have to do so ". My mum still does I think, not because she listens to what french communist party says, or for its ideas, but because that's just the way it is.
I guess some vote for a charismatic leader, which can twist the borders of the traditional parties, I think that's what happened with Nicolas Sarkozy. Energy, all that stuff, a way to speak that was " closer " to the way common people speak.

A tendency I feel these past years, and I felt that's what happened with Nicolas Sarkozy, is that some people didn't vote for some ideas, but they voted against the person, there was some kind of " Everyone but not him ". I guess any socialist opponent would have won (still, Front National would have lost).
Another one is to vote " for a single idea " inside a political programme. My dad vote for Front National, for one single thing : immigration (islamic). When we manage to talk about this without argueing, he acknowledges that there's NOTHING good in their economic/society program (leave Europe, set back death sentence, come back to franc currency ...), but still, he votes for them every time for ONE thing : immigration. I guess it might be the same, let's say in USA about the right to bear arms from the 2nd amendment, not matter how excellent or good the political programme could be, some people would get stuck on that single arms thing without even listening to what else is in the programme.

Finally, some vote for the political programme, that's what I do. There're some good ideas (and bad ones !) on both sides, and some candidates dare to try to find a " middle " or even " different " way, but they never even get an average success. One could argue, and I agree, that if all really applied their election political programme, maybe it would be different (but even then, I'm not sure).

Hubcap Special (and american MMO-Champion fellows) :
More than anywhere else (or maybe we simply never hear about it from here), is there something else than Republicans/Democrats that could have an average chance to win some presidential election in USA ? I always tend to remember those like Ross Perot, or Ralph Nader in USA : where they credible in any way but still had absolutly no chance to win or, let's say have 20 % of the votes (far from a win, but still interesting) ? Why is it so, simply that people didn't support them, or is it the " presidential election system " that makes that it's not possible ? Are there some deputies/senators who're not part or one of these 2 parties (could google, but as I'm talking about it, putting it there) ? Heard about Tea Party, but don't have much to say about it, looks like a total anti-federal right-winged thing from what I've read.

[Deleted]

I mainly vote for the political programme, even if a good party leader adds to the appeal.

[Deleted]

Do you vote for lies or lies or lies? well. If I gotta choose, I choose lies.

[Grimbold21]

I vote blank

[Pucek]

To be honest, the politics in Poland sucks balls soo much that I just vote for the party I hate the least. Every politician lies and promises things they won't do, I just don't want to see my country as totalitarian dictatorship and an asshole on International scale.

[Emageht Tsoluoy]

I vote individually on the issues, because politicians are incapable of representing anything truthfully.

Then i write in my own name on the ballot for the politician's vote because screw them all, they all suck.

Also, i read up on the issues because i actually care about what happens, and prefer to be an informed voter instead of a party-lemming.

[PaladinBash]

I vote for whoever gives me the most stuff and if neither of them really offers anything, whoever fucks the country over the least. The Liberal party here promised to stop boat people breaking into the country, they did and I am glad that I voted for them. There's lots of useless protesters and traitors stamping their feet about how 'wrong' it is to keep terrorists and dissidents out of the country but the government has the correct stance on them: they have no money, they have stupid ideas and they do not matter to anyone but themselves. As useless as the Liberal party is on almost everything else, this one method has made me feel good for having voted for them and I will almost certainly continue to do so next election unless they buckle or the Labor party amazes me by doing something competent.

[Pull My Finger]

The mere thought of political parties makes me wanna puke and break things.
The mere thought of individual politicians makes me wanna beat them for hours.
The mere thought of political programs as we know them makes me want to laugh and cry simultaneously.

It's no use. I'm not interested in choosing between a few equally idiotic answers to irrelevant and distracting questions. I don't vote.

[Tuor]

I don't know, it depends, when its municipal elections, i normally vote in the guy, but when its general election i normally vote in the programe of the party. The problem is that i am a self assumed liberal, and there is no real liberal party in my country, so i normally end voting in one of the 2 sharks of portuguese politics, normally PSD (center-right, afialiated in the European Popular Party group) reflects my beliefs better then the other shark, PS (portuguese Socialist Party). I also always skipp left parties, such as the comunists and the Left Block (the model where the greek Syrisa got its inspiration) as they don't reflect my beliefs at all.

Normally i don't believe in extrems, being them left or right, i believe that what we can do, we can always do the correct stuff, and left ideology have some good stuff, just like the right ones.

The problem, after the portuguese baillout, is that the current governement, PSD, was forced to go to far, did a lot of wrong stuff, and it can also be blamed for the baillout. The other shark, PS, the one responsable for the baillout, and for the insane spending that forced us to it doesn't inspire me with trust at all, their politics are often a hole for the national treasury. Even not enjoying current governement, i believe that the current governemt is the one that might keep my country floating at the top of the insane debt we currently have. So i might vote on them next general election in September.

[Deleted]

In Portugal, the electoral system is one based on closed lists. The only election where we can vote for a person, is on the Presidential elections. On the rest, we vote for the party. Still, I always try to vote based on a party's political program, and always judge the current government's performance. (Which means I never voted on an incumbent govern, because they suck).

On the two-party system subject, it also happens here, despite the fact we have a multi-party system:
over the last 40 years, the same 2 parties (PS and PSD) won the majority of the elections, switching seats in turns. Sometimes, coalitions are made and a 3rd party from the Right political spectre is included, but it only happens if the center-right party (PSD) can't reach voting majority by itself.

The situation in numbers: for the Parliament elections, typically we have roughly 17 parties running on an election. Of those 17, six usually get seats on the parliament. Of those 6, only 2 have a real chance to win, by running alone.

So yeah, even though we have an healthy number of parties competing together, in reality, people vote for the same two parties.
Maybe it is voting traditions, maybe it is the abstention rates that skew the results, or maybe is this "First Past the Post" system we have.

[banur]

I vote with a big X across the paper.

[Rukh]

Definitely for the person, but that generally ends up coming down to party lines because the person in the US always appeals to their base until the general election when they suddenly take back all the things they said about the other side being the evil that infects the world.

[Independent voter]

Usually the party, Democrats in my case.

[Deleted]

In theory I vote for a party, but in reality it's for a person, ie. the person currently leader of the opposition to form a government after next week's election.

One thing about bloc politics in Denmark, is that the left wing will always find hilarious ways to destroy itself from within. The Socialist People's Party joined the government for the first time in 2011, had to swallow some mightily bitter pills, and eventually had to leave the government last year, as their MP's were fleeing to the Social Democrats and Social Liberals, while the ordinary party members toppled the leader of the party. And then there's the Unity List (made up of 3 former communist parties), who aren't members of the government, but keeps bitching and whining about the rightwing policies the government are proposing, while at the same threat voting for them, since they otherwise run the risk of bringing the government down

[Tuor]

In Portugal, the electoral system is one based on closed lists. The only election where we can vote for a person, is on the Presidential elections.

The head of the lists still represent the person... And even that we not electing the PM directly, everyone knows that the leader of the party the won's the elections will normally be nominated for PM, in the case of general election, or to Mayor, in the case of Municipal election. So yes, a lot of people vote in the guy, and not in the party.

[Dezerte]

I vote for the ideology, because that is what I believe is what matters. Having a charismatic party leader helps a great deal (but I wish it didn't), and sometimes you wonder which party you should vote for because the parties develop their own personal interpretation of the ideology.

[Deleted]

I vote based on my personal interests.

Dont care about the person, ideoligy and certainly not anything related to socialusm.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Voting by party is pretty lame. I think voting for what a person stands for is most important. I liked a lot of the things Obama stood for, but didn't like his stances and past voting records on issues like gun control and late term abortion. I had to weigh that against the people (reasonably) running against him.

[Lotus Victoria]

Whatever comes in mind when I'm voting, becomes my answer.