Explaining NZ Politics to a Friend in America:

your right Jeff, but really our democratic system is a two horse race as well and for all it's trappings very similar to American politics. There are no real progressive parties with mainstream support and neo-liberalism underscores the whole political agenda. Not to be doomsday about it though laughs. The most progressive party is TOP http://www.top.org.nz/policy however they are very new and have little chance of even having a person in parliament. Our government is effectively owned and operated by diary farmers (our form of big business) with a plethora of unnecessary subsides given to them to make them even richer, especially water. Labour our mainstream left party, the only chance of opposition to right wing National is a party of inertia, that champions workers rights while selling them down the river. So all up I would say democracy is acting poorly in NZ, the people and there views are not represented, leading to millions of Kiwis not turning out to vote. Grass roots and social, political movements in NZ can make a real difference voting is simply a symbolic gesture to maintain the status quo with it's embedded institutionalized exploitation. A change will come, and it will not be at the ballot box, but through denying the pseudo power and forced choice of voting. Freedom can not be restrained by the state indefinitely.