OutlineThe URQ is the classic Westminster model of majoritarian
government, where electoral rules and party-systems
tend to produce highly cohesive parliamentary majorities,
thus strengthening the role of the executive both as a
political authority and as a channel for bureaucratic
implementation. While this remains a strongly admired
and largely pursued model for majority-building, its successful
application remains limited to a small number of
countries. More often, the only way of forming parliamentary
majorities is through weaker and unstable
majorities (LRQ), made up by the temporary aggregation
of a more or less vast array of minority interests.
Parties are the main agent of coalition-building. The
LLQ is concerned with the engineering of consensus
through media, which set the agenda of public opinion
demands and influence its choices. Media activism serves
the need of elites for mass support through the creation of
virtual majorities. The ULQ refers to the trend toward
plebiscitarian democracies, where majorities coalesce
around presidential leadership through a referendum
type of election - whether by a formal ballot or through
“permanent campaign†with popularity polling.
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