About the time I think I have made some real progress learning about this new culture, I’m hit with another insight; in this case about politics. In Social Work practice we teach the importance of community, state and national social change through legislative processes to improve quality of life. In the US we know the name, party, and positions of our representatives and do sometimes write, call, email or visit. So, in 6 fall classes I asked students (about 250 in total) if they knew the name of their legislative representative in the parliament and got back blank stares or occasionally a comment like “It doesn’t really matter” or “They don’t represent us anyway.” An instructor can only push an issue so far and then needs to move on. I moved on.
But here’s what I didn’t/couldn’t understand. “There is no one specific representative to call.” Cheryl & I had lunch with the church senior citizen group this noon and sat with a Latvian-Canadian who was today’s activity organizer. The discussion focused on a parliamentary resolution to increase significantly the pensions of the elderly. At this point it’s the kind of feel-good proposal that many support in principle but aren’t likely to fund. “Because of the Latvian proportional system”, said our host, “the members are beholden to no constituency but the party. You see, there’s no specific person to call.” Latvia is smaller than West Virginia and has a population of just over 2 million (about the size of metropolitan Cleveland or Cincinnati).
Here’s the Latvian system for electing parliament. Each of several political parties puts forth a list of candidates. Five to seven parties reach the 5% vote level to qualify for seats. If a party wins 20% of the vote, they appoint 20% of the members of the 100 seat parliament from their list. Several may be from one district or neighborhood but other districts or neighborhoods may not have anyone in the parliament from their area. It’s no wonder students looked blank or perplexed by my culture-bound queries about “their” representative.
But here’s what I didn’t/couldn’t understand. “There is no one specific representative to call.” Cheryl & I had lunch with the church senior citizen group this noon and sat with a Latvian-Canadian who was today’s activity organizer. The discussion focused on a parliamentary resolution to increase significantly the pensions of the elderly. At this point it’s the kind of feel-good proposal that many support in principle but aren’t likely to fund. “Because of the Latvian proportional system”, said our host, “the members are beholden to no constituency but the party. You see, there’s no specific person to call.” Latvia is smaller than West Virginia and has a population of just over 2 million (about the size of metropolitan Cleveland or Cincinnati).
Here’s the Latvian system for electing parliament. Each of several political parties puts forth a list of candidates. Five to seven parties reach the 5% vote level to qualify for seats. If a party wins 20% of the vote, they appoint 20% of the members of the 100 seat parliament from their list. Several may be from one district or neighborhood but other districts or neighborhoods may not have anyone in the parliament from their area. It’s no wonder students looked blank or perplexed by my culture-bound queries about “their” representative.
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