Electoral Reform
Without some form of elections, there is no democracy. In today's world, different states across the globe are uniquely recognized by the culture, political history and party organization they stand on. Given this, states develop unique electoral arrangements from the vast variety of these systems to accommodate their political needs. Elections do much more than simply determine who will form the next government; they have several important functions in a state. The primary role of elections, of course, is to provide a routine mechanism for recruiting and selecting the individuals who will occupy seats in representative institutions (Jackson and Jackson, p. 364). Also, regularly held elections provide the people of the state with a means to review the government's record and mandate and decide whether to replace it with an alternative. Once governments have been elected, they inherit a legitimacy to rule the state and carry out the mandate on the voter's behalf. In all societies, elections also act as agents of political socialization and political integration, providing a unifying focus for the country (Jackson and Jackson, p. 365). There are three main types of electoral systems: single-member plurality, single member ma
It is my opinion that the advantages and disadvantages of the PR versus SMP are that of varying degrees and not of absolute difference and therefore, the distinction between these two must not be exaggerated. PR is characterized to ensure that all candidates and groups of voters within a state are more fairly and evenly represented than in the SMP system. The two main types of PR are the party list system and the single transferable vote. Once this quota has been reached, that candidate is automatically elected. If no candidate receives a quota on the first count, the least popular candidate is excluded and his or her votes are transferred, and this continues until all seats are allocated (Jackson and Jackson, p. The other variety of PR is the single transferable vote. The SMP legislative and executive elections can be so distorted by "wasted votes" won by "spoilers" outside the two major parties that minority viewpoints can actually win power. Also, only a party or coalition of parties, who could attract more than 50% of the electorate, could form a government. As an example, a government has not come to power in the United Kingdom with more than 45% of the popular vote in decades, and some of those governments clearly won only because of split votes in the opposition. The transition in party systems has not been followed by an appropriate and more fitting electoral system to accommodate the changing political environment of the Canadian government. Effective policy-making requires not so much a strong hand as a steady hand, that alternation in office between two parties leads to too frequent and abrupt changes and that multi- party coalitions are better for long-term policy-making and, as a result, tend to have greater stability, continuity and moderation in policy. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference; first preference votes are the first to be looked at, and the votes are then transferred if necessary from candidates who have either been comfortably elected or who have done so badly that they are eliminated from the election. In other words, allowing candidates of a small party to become elected is the choice of those people who want to be represented by party. The party-list method of voting provides the disadvantaged sections of the population access to the House of Representatives through their parties and grassroots organizations; an opportunity made difficult by the single member district method of voting. In conclusion, Canada has been dominated by the two-party system in the past, but recently has begun to fragment into a multi-party dominant system due to Canada's history, vast cultures and social cleavages from one coast to the other.
Common topics in this essay:
Jackson Jackson,
House Representatives,
,
United Kingdom,
Critics PR,
jackson jackson,
Canada PR,
proportional representation,
electoral systems,
single transferable vote,
single-member plurality,
transferable vote,
popular vote,
single transferable,
canadian government,
pr system,
plurality system,
jackson jackson p372,
jackson jackson 370,
system proportional representation,
single-member plurality system,
|
Acceptance Essays
