According to Brown (2003) and Fischer (2002) elections provide a legitimate and legal context in which citizens can express their opinions and views. To Reilly (2002) and Reilly (2008) it is a means towards democracy and democratic governance. Elections are viewed in the public discourse as the first step towards developing of democratic institutions and consolidating the democratization process (Kumar 1998:7). Jeff Fischer (2002) adopts an argument that it is not the electoral process per se that triggers violence, but the breakdown of this process. Fischer (2002) does not contest the crucial role that elections have in the democratization process. He says, “it is difficult to identify any electoral surrogate that has brought about non-conflictive …show more content…
EMBs conduct their activity following several principles: independence, impartiality, integrity, transparency, efficiency, professionalism and service-mindedness (Wall et al. 2006:22) The independence and impartiality of EMBs is often related to the EMB Model - whether or not the EMB is independent, governmental or mixed; or party-based, expertise-based or both (Wall et. al 2006). Independent and expertise-based models are considered in many parts of the world as the best EMBs for ensuring the independence and impartiality of decisions and actions. Models are very good whether governmental, semi-government, or independent. The role of managers in a great context has a key role in the directions electoral management take; this goes hand in hand with the behavior of the individual managers. Systems must be supported by this …show more content…
And, fourth, this election was being conducted within a short preparation time yet it was a recommendation after the 2007 elections that there is need for adoption of new technology in the subsequent elections. A marked similarity that the 2013 elections possessed which the 2007 had was the characterization of the political climate by a seemingly close contestation of the presidency. The political scene in Kenya is largely split along ethnic lines; at the 2007 election Kibaki mainly garnered the Kikuyu vote while Odinga was largely supported by Luo and Kalenjin groups... Odinga and Kenyatta are from the Luo and Kikuyu ethnic groups respectively. This immediately frames the electoral decision as an ethnic one once again (Cummings,
The Election of 1800 The election process that occurred after John Adams’ first term was a bumpy, but intriguing one. The presidential election process of 1800 was interesting and featured many conflicts and disagreements. This grueling election process resulted in John Adams no longer being president, giving the power to Thomas Jefferson. It also marked the first peaceful transition of power in American history.
Should the Electoral College Be Replaced by the Direct Election of the President? A Debate The presidency and election of the presidency is often viewed as the main focus of the American political system. In recent years the election process and Electoral College have come under scrutiny and reconsideration due to how important the election is. In this paper we will examine the two different arguments about whether or not the Electoral College is a democratic and useful system.
Gregg II believes the Electoral College has long been one of the least understood and most unappreciated aspects of the American constitutional order. Yet, it has endured and continued to serve American democracy, why?—because it works. He argues a few times that our presidential elections are open, free, and fair due to the Electoral College. “Our fights can be bitter, but when they are decided at the ballot box they end with legitimate presidents and governable regimes,” Gregg says. He gives the example that in a presidential election, candidates are a race to win more votes than the other guy—and each is based on every vote being counted as well as all votes counting equally.
Democracy within our country has been questioned and tested through our voting system. In America, our system for electing our president has remained under a process that aims to benefit our nation. By doing this, America uses the Electoral College, in which may cause disputes about the process of electing our president. Overall, there are advantages and disadvantages within the concept of winner-take all system, representing our nation as a whole, and equality of our votes. The Electoral College can be reformed to establish a more democratic voting system in order to allow for the voices of American citizens to be heard.
Therefore, once the voters discern that the current status quo is unproductive, they seek another path to follow to tackle these inefficiencies. Since our nation prides itself on the two-party system, voters really do not have the choice but to turn to
In light of the recent election it is time for America to abolish the electoral college. Discuss. The results of the latest U.S. presidential elections has re-introduced some of the political issues concerning the election system. One of the main issues being discussed is the role of the long-standing Electoral College.
On November 6, 2012, Donald Tump tweeted from his personal twitter account that “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy”. Four years later, he went on to win the electoral vote for presidency. His opponent had nearly three million more popular votes. The electoral college is a population based system that has decided general elections ever since the Constitution was written, often falling with the popular vote. It is strange for the electoral not to vote the way of the people, especially since there is nothing thing in the Constitution that pledges electoral votes to a candidate.
The Electoral College plays a very important role in the presidential election. The founding fathers established it in the constitution as a compromise between election of the president by a vote in congress and election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. Sad to say that gaining all the popular votes doesn 't guarantee you a win. On four occasions, the winner of the popular vote did not capture the presidency.
For many years, America’s voting system has been criticized, with the main point of interest being the Electoral College. Some say that the Electoral College is necessary to streamline and simplify the voting process, while others say that it is outdated and takes away power from American citizens. After investigating the subject, it is clear that the Electoral College should be abolished due to the three major defects its critics find in the system; its undemocratic nature, its tendency to give small states’ votes too much power, and its disastrous effects on third-party candidates. The first, and possibly largest, defect in the Electoral College is its undemocratic nature. A professor of political science once said that “the Electoral College violates political equality” (Edwards 453).
The Electoral College began with Article II of the Constitution, stating that each state will appoint as many electors as it is entitled senators and representatives. (Levin-Waldman, 2016) The president of the United States is elected by what is called the Electoral College. There are a total of 538 electoral votes cast, and all candidates elected to run for office from their respective party needs 270 in order to win. “For most states, the candidate who wins a majority of votes in that state takes all of its electors.
The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.
The Electoral College is a crucial component of how the President of The United States is elected. The votes cast by the Electoral College can outweigh the popular vote of the American public, so it would be consequential for the American public to be aware of the Electoral College and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. This, however, is sadly not the case. Even some of today’s elected officials are not up to date on how the government works. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute ran a poll of twenty-five hundred randomly selected Americans, out of the members of that poll that were elected officials only fifty-three percent of them answered correctly when asked if they knew what the Electoral College’s function was.
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.
Parliamentarism, or a parliamentary government, is defined “as a system of government in which the executive, the government, is chosen by and is responsible to…the legislature.” (Gerring, Thacker and Moreno, 2005, p. 15) With this form of governmental control, many advantages and disadvantages arise, especially when this system is compared to the likes of ‘Presidential systems’ or even that of ‘Semi-presidential systems’. However, my aim within this essay is to, both, highlight to advantages of parliamentarism, and to also give my opinion as to why this system is better when compared and contrasted with the aforementioned systems. According to Hague and Harrop (2007, p. 336), there are three different branches relating to the parliamentary system. Firstly, the legislature and the executive are “originally linked”.
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