Democracy might seem like an utopic political system, a breath of fresh air for former totalitarian states of Eastern Europe and the most balanced way of governing a state in the Western part. However, like any political system, there are some flaws amongst all the promising benefits. In this essay I intend to analyze both the advantages and disadvantages of it and hope to render an objective perspective of what a pluralistic democracy lacks and offers. I will start my debate with the example of the United Kingdom, a powerful and prosperous country of the continent. An interesting part of their system is the election voting. Election voting in the UK consists of over 600 constituencies that each vote for a local member of the Parliament to represent their area. Each area generally has a representative from each of the running parties. The candidate in each constituency with the most votes at the end of election will become the member of the Parliament for that area (known as First-past-the-post).
Some issues with the system are that the members of Parliament represented in parliament are not a fair representation of the number of votes for each party. If one party could gain one more vote in each constituency than the other candidates, then they get those seats.
Consider the
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The first one would be the right to have your own separate identity, which included freedom of speech, possibility of having a personalized business and the absence of censure. Being able to establish yourself as an individual is an essential trait of a healthy political system. Also, the system is governed by the people, as the etymology of the word democracy suggests: “Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule’”, meaning that the changes in the state power are done through a conscious manner by all its citizens and not through force or
Introduction An electoral system or voting system is a mechanism by voters to make a choice between the options put forward before them. This part of rules is the most controversy about electoral systems for converting votes into seats. According to Hague and Harrop (2001), an election is a competition for office based on a formal expression of preferences by a population. These opinions are then combined into a collective decision about which candidates have won. As Abraham Lincoln said “Election belong to the people.
Each state receives an electoral vote for each Senator, and one for each House representative. It is due to this that each state is guaranteed at least three electoral votes, despite the possibility of three-vote states having populations that can differ by tens of thousands of citizens. House of Representative seats are assigned based on the national census. However, between censuses, state representatives will be
It allows them to use tactics such as packing and cracking which can have a tremendous impact on elections. Packing is when politicians draw out district maps for each party based on population. Packing can swing the vote because the population of one party could out weight the population of the minority party within the same district, causing the entire district to swing with the majority. Voters feel that the other tactic, cracking, gives them a disadvantage because the political parties are being spread out between multiple districts which causes one district to have the majority party in multiple areas (King, Elizabeth). When the politicians of the party in power have drawn out the voters’ map, they maintain power over the lines of the map.
In Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, it talks about democracy in America and its strengths and weaknesses. Having seen the failed attempts at democratic government in his home country of France, Tocqueville wanted to study a stable and prosperous democracy to gain insights into how it worked. His studies led him to conclude that the movement toward democracy and equality of conditions was a universal phenomenon and a permanent historical tendency that could not be stopped. Since this democratic trend was inevitable, Tocqueville wanted to analyze it in order to determine its strengths and dangers so that governments could be formed to reinforce democracy 's strengths while counteracting its weaknesses. Even though Democracy in America
An Important Distinction Between Democracy and Republic It is important to keep in mind the difference between a Democracy and a Republic, as dissimilar forms of government. Understanding the difference is essential to comprehension of the fundamentals involved. It should be noted, in passing, that use of the word Democracy as meaning merely the popular type of government--that is, featuring genuinely free elections by the people periodically--is not helpful in discussing, as here, the difference between alternative and dissimilar forms of a popular government: a Democracy versus a Republic. This double meaning of Democracy--a popular-type government in general, as well as a specific form of popular government--needs to be made clear in any discussion, or writing, regarding this subject, for the sake of sound understanding.
Germans usually cast two votes: one for a candidate in their constituency and one for a political party. The process is called a personalized proportional representation system. Simply put, Germans vote to decide how the 598 base seats in the Bundestag will be divided among members of Germany 's various political parties.
Research Paper On Democracy in Canada Name : Harpreet Kaur Introduction The word democracy describes a Political System of any country. Dramatic changes have taken place in recent Years at the national level with respect to the day today functioning of our constitutional democracy. In a Democratic country like Canada , America all the citizens that are eligible have the rights to participate directly or indirectly in decision making that affect them.
Web 2.0 has revolutionized the panorama of the information society: users have become information creators and the new web platforms have become relationship venues where new knowledge and ideas emerge. Is this participation really democratic? Or is this a democracy paradox? Where everyone can interact but the decision making places are all outside the net? Does the participation on the web rather helps the citizens or the Governments and Companies?
Democracy is a form of government offering a workable solution to the fundamental political problem of reaching collective decisions by peaceful means. Democracy can also be about political equality and giving everyone an equal voice in saying how a state should be governed The procedures required to deliver democratic political equality are , free and fair elections, universal suffrage, freedom of expression and information and freedom of association . There are many types of democracies but in my essay I will explain only two types of democracies which are direct democracy and liberal democracy Direct democracy is a form of democracy where citizens are given an extraordinary amount of participation in the legislation process and granting them a maximum political self determination. It can also be called “pure democracy”.
However, the two-party system’s disadvantages outweigh these positives. At the state and local level, the two-party system has a negative effect on the government and voters, it ignores options outside of the main two parties, and is perpetuated by many
"Candidate with the highest number of the vote wins the right to represent the particular seat in the House of Commons", according to CBC news. There are some limitations regarding this method. First of all, it could possibly happen that candidate with less than half vote wins, which means it only reaches minority people's desired outcome. In addition to the tactical voting, the two-party system could be a serious problem. Since only the first matters, candidates with the low possibility to win may exist the election.
In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.
Liberal Democracy is a democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. The word democracy is greek, the word “demos” means people and “kratos” means power. The idea of liberalism first began in the 1600’s with John Locke as he believed that the people should be allowed to remove the government currently ruling when they have misused their power for ulterior motives. Although the seed was planted in the 1600’s, liberal democracy only properly took form in the 1840’s in Canada. Australia and New Zealand followed not long after as they began to use the secret ballot system to elect political leaders.
The political party model then spread over many parts of Western Europe, including France and Germany, over the 19th century. Since then, they have become the most common political system in the world. In this essay, we will show how political parties are essential to ensuring democracy. We will also show that there are unavoidable negative consequences to the party system. One of the fundamental tenants of democracy is the
Many people believe that the election plays the most important role in democracy. Because a free and fair election holds the government responsible and forces it to behave on voter's interest. However, some scholars find evidence that election itself is not enough to hold politicians responsible if the institutions are not shaping incentives in a correct way. In other words, the role of the election on democracy, whether it helps to serve the interest of the public or specific groups, depends on other political institutions. I