What if Nobody Came to the Election?

             "What if Nobody Came to the Election?"
             Discuss this statement with reference to the political systems of the UK and the USA.
             Although the notion of a turn out of zero per cent may seem fancifal, it must be noted that trends on both sides of the Atlantic are suggesting the shadow of apathy hangs more prominently with each passing election. Apathy once a term associated more singularly with the American political culture is now a problem for Western democracies as a whole. Apathy was perhaps most noteable in the recent General Election and Presidential Election results. In 2000 George Bush was elected by a reasonably credible 49.8% of the voters. Yet this mandate was provided by only 25% of those entitled to vote; as only 93 million out of the 196.5 million eligable to vote choose to do so. This figure is as poor as that of the 1924 election of Calvin Coolridge, which was clouded by the fact that African- Americans were not to gain full suffrage for another fifty years, the newly enfranchised women were in many cases unsure of how to utilitze their newly as yet unused vote. The following year in Britain Tony Blair was swept into power, by another "historic" Labour landslide, but was it really a landslide of popular support? In 1997 he had been brought to power, backed by 31.3% of the population. By 2001 Labours "landslide" of 65% of the seats was gifted to them by only 24.2% of the population. The turnout on 7th June, some 42% was the lowest since the 1918 contest. An election fundamentally flawed by the fact that one hundred seats were simply not contested and 1.25 million potential voters lay dead in Flanders mud. Elections before this date, were simply "undemocractic", however, the previous lowest turnout in less exceptional circumstance occurred in 1885 when Lord Sailsbury was brought to office, an election where all women and some men were still denied the vote.
             But why is apathy becoming such a problem? Why was Tony Blair's l...

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What if Nobody Came to the Election?. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 06:09, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/75963.html