In the last Maltese general election, Labour won approximately 55.1% of the vote, demonstrating a dominant but not overwhelming popular majority.
In the last Maltese general election, Labour won approximately 55.1% of the vote, demonstrating a dominant but not overwhelming popular majority.
Where this was said
At 12:18 · chapter starts 6:20
David Grech takes a comparative tour of electoral systems, beginning with the familiar two-party binaries of the US and UK — where first-past-the-post produces majority governments from minority mandates — before moving through the proportional-list systems common in continental Europe. He explains that Malta's Single Transferable Vote is used in only a handful of democracies worldwide, most notably Ireland and Australia, and that its combination of preferential ranking and multi-member districts makes it genuinely distinct. The discussion touches on how each system produces different incentives for voters and parties: FPTP rewards large parties, list PR rewards ideology, and STV rewards individual candidate relationships with voters. Jon pushes David to explain why Malta — a small island with only 355,000 voters — ended up with one of the world's most intricate voting systems, and David's answer points to the British colonial inheritance and a post-independence desire to maintain genuine intra-party competition as a check on one-party dominance.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.