Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

no consigue rentabilizar su consenso

English translation:

has not yet succeeded in reaping the benefits of its level of support

Added to glossary by Charles Davis
Jan 14, 2015 23:46
9 yrs ago
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Spanish term

no consigue rentabilizar su consenso

Spanish to English Social Sciences Government / Politics Partidos políticos
We are in the context of the current political situation in Spain. The term appears in the following paragraph:

"Ciudadanos, no obstante su fuerte despegue, no consigue todavía rentabilizar sus niveles de consenso: al 8,1% de los votos le correspondería solamente un 4,3% de los escaños (con representación política solamente en Cataluña y en un puñado de provincias, las más grandes)."

This is how I see it:

"Ciudadanos, despite their strong takeoff, still falls short of fully capitalizing on their levels of acceptance: their 8.1% of votes would correspond to only 4.3% of the seats (with political representation only in Catalonia and in a handful of provinces, the largest ones)."
Change log

Jan 23, 2015 18:19: Charles Davis Created KOG entry

Proposed translations

+1
2 hrs
Selected

has not yet succeeded in reaping the benefits of its level of support

This is fairly literal, apart from "support" for "consenso", which I admit is fairly free. You could stay closer by using something like "the level of consensus it has achieved/created" (not just "its level of consensus", I think; that wouldn't quite work). It would sound OK, but would be less clear, I think. I suppose the idea of "consenso", strictly speaking, is getting people to agree with each other. But in practice, as the contextual explanation shows, what it's really referring to is the party's percentage support in polls, and I think "level of support" would convey the right idea in a more natural way. I don't see any need to use "levels", in the plural, literally matching the Spanish; I don't think it makes any difference to the meaning, and the singular seems more natural to me.

"Reap the benefits", for rentabilizar, refers to the fact that in to the Spanish system small parties are disadvantaged by the threshold for parliamentary representation, which doesn't match their percentage of the popular vote if this is below about 10%. They have not succeeded in breaking through to the point that they reap the benefits by gaining a number of seats in parliament to match their percentage support from voters. The same is true, in a different way, in the UK's "first past the post" system.

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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-01-15 03:01:32 GMT)
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I'm pretty sure "consenso" is referring to a consensus among voters rather than among parties. Actually, as Andy says, the latter has not happened: Ciudadanos has not managed to agree a pact with UPyD, and an agreement with Podemos does not seem to be on the cards. Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to use my more literal alternative, "the level of consensus it has achieved". Ciudadanos does talk about "consenso" quite a lot.
Peer comment(s):

agree Andy Watkinson : I see you've read my mind, once again. It's not fair.
5 mins
Sorry! Thanks, Andy :)
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you for your answer and comments! Sorry for the delay."
1 hr

It fails to benefit from its agreement with other parties

no conseguir=to fail
rentablizar=to benefit
consenso=agreement with other (political) parties
Peer comment(s):

neutral Andy Watkinson : Point is, Albert's been unable to reach any consensus with UPyD.
1 hr
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