Pirate Party membership gains momentum

Written by Dr P Fenderson on December 27th, 2008

The Swedish Pirate Party has been gaining new members at a fantastic pace. Starting out with absolutely no support and the opposition of the media, the infamous group has been growing steadily beyond the bounds of what was initially thought to be a small interest-group. In recent polls, it seemed that they have the support of 21% of the entire population of Sweden.

Aside from the support in this poll, more people have joined the party recently. During the last quarter the membership count increased by 50% – from 6000 to 9000 – which makes the party larger than the Green Party which currently holds 19 seats in the Swedish parliament.

The Pirate Party is focused primarily on intellectual property reform, transparency in governing and the privacy rights of online users. Hopefully they get enough support to bring in some parliamentary seats in the next election. They look like they have enough support, and having a political party like this in power can only mean good things for information freedom.

Full story from TorrentFreak | Pirate Party of the US

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Grandma Owen said:
We should branch it into the US. How does their party system? Is it similar to ours?

Posted on December 29th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Dr P Fenderson said:
You mean Sweden? According to Wikipedia:

Constitutionally, the 349-member Riksdag (Parliament) holds supreme authority in modern Sweden. The Riksdag is responsible for choosing the prime minister, who then appoints the government (the ministers). The legislative power is then shared between the parliament and the Prime Minister led government. The executive power is exercised by the government, while the judiciary is independent. Sweden lacks compulsory judicial review, although the non-compulsory review carried out by lagrådet (Law Council) is mostly respected in technical matters but less so in controversial political matters. Acts of the parliament and government decrees can be made inapplicable at every level if they are manifestly against constitutional laws. However, due to the restrictions in this form of judicial review and a weak judiciary, this has had little practical consequence.

Legislation may be initiated by the cabinet or by members of Parliament. Members are elected on the basis of proportional representation for a four-year term. The Constitution of Sweden can be altered by the Riksdag, which requires a simple but absolute majority and two decisions with general elections in between. Sweden has three other constitutional laws: the Act of Royal Succession, the Freedom of Press Act and the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression.

Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 1:59 am

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