far left progressive policies, that used to be the domain of the Greens, before the Realo's overtook the Fundies.

So you could argue with Juergen Trittin is/was in power for the last couple of years.

They were just not socially radical and politically stron enough

The power of internals depends on the form of PR: the Irish use multi-seat constituencies with no lists, so each local area elects 4 or 5 representatives directly.

Of course, this way you get independents being elected on local issues who then proceed to have disproportionate power.

Democracy: the worst system of governance except for all the rest.

I see that is your second comment in which you say that Lafontaine is "NPD lite". I have not followed the whole circumstances that lead to the split from the SPD and the creation of the Linkspartei with PDS, but can you back up your claim that he is "NPD lite" with a link or any article that would shed some light on it?

Thanks.

ok, I read your comment in DoDo's diary. I just would like to get more information about it.

1.   PR tends to create coalition governments where small but crucial minority parties get outsized power and influence since the big parties have to get their support - classic examples are the FDP in Germany and the religious parties in Israel.

Good observation.  And a small religious party in Israel which got 3% of the vote and has 1-2 Parliament members can walk away and cause a collapse of the government. It causes instability.

2. Furthermore, a PR system gives a huge amount of power to the unelected internal party leadership.
Party officials who get to do backroom deals have disproportionate amount of power.

3.  Your economic or social or political program gets watered down, because you have to compromise, give-and-take.  The alternative is you let the other guy implement his policies and if they don't work, you win the next election and get your shot at it.

PR tends to create coalition governments where small but crucial minority parties get outsized power and influence since the big parties have to get their support

Not quite so much in New Zealand.  Yes, our first election under PR led to a populist anti-immigrant party playing the two main parties off against one another - but the backlash against that sort of behaviour almost destroyed them.  Since then, our minor parties have been a lot more reasonable in their expectations.

Of course, we're only on our 4th PR election, and we're still really getting used to it.

Furthermore, a PR system gives a huge amount of power to the unelected internal party leadership.

This IMHO is the really big flaw, as it utterly stifles internal dissent.  Imagine Tony Blair under MMP; he wouldn't have to worry about any backbench rebellions, because he'd simply ensure that the list was packed with his supporters.

In NZ we have a further criticism: that by virtually guaranteeing coalition government, PR stops parties from "getting things done" and enacting "necessary" reforms.  This is voiced almost solely by relics from the neo-liberal era, who used FPP's "elected dictatorship" to ram change through without consultation (or even announcing that that was what their party stood for at election time), and who still haven't got the message that that's precisely why we wanted it in the first place.

Idiot/Savant
No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog