These Fair Shores: The Commonwealth of New England

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At this point you have to ask, why does Vermont even bother having other parties?

On the other hand, at least there seems to be a way of injecting fresh blood every so often with their whatever-they-call-open-primaries-ITTL.
 
At this point you have to ask, why does Vermont even bother having other parties?

On the other hand, at least there seems to be a way of injecting fresh blood every so often with their whatever-they-call-open-primaries-ITTL.

The Mountain Liberals are more a pressure group than a political party. They take part in the legislative session, and even have control of the calendar for a week. Vermont's provincial government is extremely small and extremely weak, as it has been since the 1810s. There is very little the province does, which is why the Legislature only meets for 6 weeks. The Mountain Liberals do serve a purpose-they primarily represent industrial workers and look for earkmarks for industrial improvements, or simply the legislature signing off on a construction of a new dam or approval for a permit to discharge pollution into the air/water.

Town meetings serve two purposes. The first and foremost is to set the town's agenda for the year, and to elect the selectpersons for the town. Some towns still practice full-direct democracy and all decisions are voted on by the town's electors for the year, such as major spending projects, new capital plans, and so on. For towns who do not have direct democracy, the selectpersons will be elected (this is a nonpartisan office, mandated by the many, many town charters) and the town votes on the first selectman. The first selectman (the town meeting manager in direct-democracy towns), will then declare an open nomination for the United Party's nominee in the September election, which the entire town then votes on. For this reason, the United Party is officially just a standard centre-right, right-wing agrarian party, but many members are left-wing, or are members of industrial unions, or otherwise working class citizens.

On the surface, the 201-year rule of the United Party seems like the destruction of Democracy and deeply oligarchic. However, Vermont is often considered to be one of the most democratic provinces of New England, and one of the most democratic entities that exist within the British Empire.


Good old malapportionment

You'd think so. Of all of Vermont's towns over five thousand inhabitants (23 in total - 50% of Vermont's population), the United Party won the vote 52-40%, and then among the top 152 towns (those over 1,000 inhabitants), the United Party wins 68%-25%. Even under a system which apportioned the legislature using FPTP, it's extremely likely the United Party would still win a supermajority of seats.
 
What powers do the Vermont government (or the rest of the provincial governments) and the towns have?
How is the VT Lieutenant Governor's Council elected? I assume they are the executive for the province.
 
Very interesting system. Vermont is one of the few states in OTL that could make a one town, one member system work given the (relatively) even distribution of population and lack of major cities (assuming OTL SCOTUS permitted such systems anymore). Is there any kind of pressure to better represent urban dwellers, @CosmicAsh , or is everyone relatively content given the town meeting system for nominations and the Mountain Rule ensuring each region and community gets at least 1 year out of four with the top job?
 
I know you are frequently barraged with questions so I don't want to add more, but as a Trekkie recent events caught my eye. Boston has declared March 26th (Today) Leonard Nimoy Day. Does anything similar exist ITTL? What was Leonard Nimoy's career like, if he even existed?
 
How do the provincial parties interact with the national-level ones?

Are they entirely separate? Do provincial parties form joint tickets with national ones, or at least give their endorsement?

Or is it more like elections to the EU Parliament, where like-minded provincial parties band together?
 
I was looking back at this and a have a few questions: Why are there so many Green Party governments across Europe? (I'm assuming here that most European politicians have similar views to their OTL counterparts) Why does Finland have such a right-wing government? And am I right to assume that Spain's political divide is a similar situation to as the OTL People's Republic of China is with the Republic of China?
 
How? Is Connecticut Labour right-wing or is Shelton liberal ITTL?

Connecticut Labour is fairly left-wing. Loyalville itself is primarily an industrial town along the river, along with Derby across the river, the two towns still produce a very large variety of goods, and the population are mostly left-wing voting union members. Only on the ourskirts of both towns do you see a substantial right-wing, primarily agricultural population
 
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