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Pirate Party

Posted by clioandme • 10/11/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: curiosities, political parties

Here's an interesting party that is about digital and private rights of individuals: pirate-party.us/platform

It claims to be international, as you can see from the clickable map on the website of the German version of this party: www.piratenpartei.de/navigation/partei/piratenparteien-weltweit

Ay matey, this is for real.

In the German case, they have another point of view that goes beyond the US platform. There they are talking about anti-fascism, which is a real enough goal, insofar as fascist-leaning parties exist in Europe, though, of course, most democratic parties are anti-fascist.

Has anyone ever heard of this party? Have any of you ever felt that there was a point to a little party outside the mainstream? Not me, but it is kind of amusing to think of a party pronounced pahRRRRty.

User Comments

10/11/09

Agit8r

I've never heard of it... but then I don't pirate stuff either.

[reply]
1. 10/11/09
  
  clioandme
  
  Neither do I. Kind of interesting how one could make it a moral issue. The reason it caught my eye, however, was the anti-fascist rhetoric in Germany. I had to work backwards to get to the American version.
2. 10/14/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  Ever read what Jefferson had to say about patents? Granted copyrighting is a bit different IMO.
3. 10/14/09
  
  jeremyjanson
  
  Patents are a subsidy for innovation that costs the government very little tax money. They do hurt the supply-side somewhat by causing a distortion in the use of resources, but the societal externalities, especially for military defense, infrastructrue, and education in my mind justify the allocation.
4. 10/14/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  I would tend to agree with the more mainstream Madison on this one; that patents should be granted upon merit, and be for as limited a time as might still compensate the innovator.
5. 10/14/09
  
  xmarks
  
  Arguably that as technology changes faster today than over 100 years ago, the time of patent protection should be reduced.
6. 10/14/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  Also the fact that the modern patent trade is controlled by corporate lawyers...
7. 10/14/09
  
  jeremyjanson
  
  @xmarks: Yeah but if you reduce the time patents last the subsidy is smaller.
8. 10/15/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  The problem is that patents are presently allowed to be stolen, and renewed perpetually by those who steal them--those who have the money to subvert the Rule of Law.
10/11/09

polybore

We have them in the UK and they can pack quite a punch at a local level if not a national one.

Here are some examples.

United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Essentially anti EU party capable of taking significant numbers of votes away from the main parties.

British National Party. Far right party anti immigration and pro repatriation.

Green Party. (speaks for itself)

Polybore thinks that parties outside the mainstream have a part to play. Democracy is about representation, how can it be representative if the established parties are effectively running a cartell?

[reply]
1. 10/11/09
  
  clioandme
  
  That works better in a parliamentary system. Have any actually made it to Parliament? The only system I've experienced in Europe is Germany, where they require a party to make 5% of the vote before they get any seats. (This is a legacy of the supposedly fractured Weimar party system.)
2. 10/11/09
  
  polybore
  
  Not yet, the first past the post system denies them MP's in Parliament. They do pick up seats in European and Local Elections however.
  
  There have been instances of single issue independents being elected as MPs though.
  
  news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/correspondents/newsid_2625000/2625151.stm
  www.doctortaylor.info/
  
  Essentially the UK is divided into constituencies. Each constituency elects an MP, the person with the most votes is elected. The downside is that the votes for anyone other than the victor effectively don't count. (first past the post) The party with the most MPs forms the government.
  
  In Germany they have proportional representation where all the votes cast count (providing as you say the party breaches the 5% threshold).
3. 10/11/09
  
  clioandme
  
  They actually have a mixed system. Each person gets two votes, one going to a candidate and the second going to a party. www.france24.com/en/20090925-german-election-merkel-constitution-europe-naz...
4. 10/11/09
  
  polybore
  
  Thanks. Actually that is the same system as we have in Scotland for the Scottish Parliament. We spend pretty much all our time voting these days.
  
  Local Elections, European Elections, Scottish Parliament Elections and Westminster Elections. Who would have thought it, democracy, what a chore.
5. 10/14/09
  
  jeremyjanson
  
  To some degree, primaries are supposed to serve some of that function in the US, and did until about 1984 which is when both the Republicans and Democrats began frontlearning primaries to prevent the kind of stuff that Reagan pulled off against the GOP in 1980. You'll probably see a return to it, however, as both parties begin to fall apart and realize that they need competitive primaries for long-term stability.
  
  @MS: I've voted "Libertarian" once - just this last election for Georgia Water Comissioner. I also, in protest of there only being a Democrat candidate running for a local congressional seat, wrote in "Fifty-Cent" in protest. So I've voted for "Fifty Cent" in a congressional election. If a third-party had a candidate there instead, I would've voted for them in protest.
6. 10/14/09
  
  clioandme
  
  In one category last fall I had a choice of one Democrat and no one else. That didn't sit right, so I voted "None of the Above."
10/11/09

clioandme

I have actually voted for a different party here in DC. You see, here I can either vote for the Democrat in a one-party Democrat city, or the Republican opposition, in a situation where I find the national party too distasteful to even consider. With choices like that, I sometimes turn to the DC Satehood Green Party in DC to register my dissatisfaction with the status quo here in the District, unless I think the individual in question (almost always a Democrat) is doing a particularly good job. www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/

If I were in Germany and had the right to vote, it would definitely be Green now that they have proven they know how to govern responsibly, the "Realos" (the "realistic" ones) having won out over the "Fundis" (the idealists unwilling to make compromises in order to enter a government and get things done).

[reply]
1. 10/14/09
  
  Agit8r
  
  yeah, I hear you there.