Government and Choice

Recently, with the growing strength of the Green Party as well as the election of several independents to parliament the choice of representatives has increased from just the two major parties.


In a hypothetical situation where this trend were to continue and several other parties were to emerge, the parliament could be made entirely of independent representatives. This would mean that issues and bills could be discussed, supported and voted on, in terms of, the merit of the solution rather than by party alliances. (this would provide an obvious architectural opportunity to restructure the parliament seating structure). However there are several issues with this scenario; The parliament would probably operate similarly to a hung parliament and decision making would be slow, which would effect the countries progress ; choosing representatives would be time consuming because each would stand for different ideals ; and when electing new officials it would be difficult to expect different results from the parliament if there wasn't a clear difference in the representatives we elect.  


As it turns out the government and opposition system, currently in place, is pretty successful (except during a hung parliament) where the party  in control is able to drive progress. This also works at election time because we are able to see a clear alternative if we were unhappy with the previous government. 


Maintaining a simple choice of who we elect to govern us supports the idea that too much choice has a negative impact on the individuals who make the decision. Further articulated in the presentation by Sheena Iyengar 'The art of Choosing'