This is criticised because the current political party in power have the ability to make their own decisions for the UK before listening to what the people want. This then becomes a problem because they may make changes that the majority of the population will not agree with. However, near to the next election they may decide to listen to people as they want them to vote for them (the current political party in power) during the next election. Secondly, the UK has a hereditary monarchy and a house of lords, both which are not elected. This contradicts a democratic society and is seen as a dictatorship because elections are the cornerstone of a democracy.
Elections are held around every 5 years. Every eligible resident in the UK over the age of 18 can vote. People vote for who they want in parliament for the next 5 years. * What is a local election? Local elections follow a 4 year cycle.
People vote for electors, and those electors elect the president. The problem with this is that someone can win the presidency without winning the popular vote. Majority of Americans could have voted for President X, but President Y could still win. One recent example of this occurring is in the 2000 election, Bush v. Gore. “In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote in the election, with 50,992,335 votes to 50,455,156 votes for George W. Bush.” (http://www.deseretnews.com/top/1093/9/2000-George-W-Bush-vs-Al-Gore-10-of-theclosest-presidential-elections-in-United-States-history.html) Al Gore had about half of a million more votes than George Bush.
When evaluating the arguments raised on both sides it I believe that the Electoral College should be replaced by a national popular vote. An argument that exposes the weakness of the Electoral College and why it should be replaced by a national popular vote is because the ‘winner takes all’ system distorts the results of the elections. There have been various results in which the popular vote did not reflect the results of the Presidential election. A notorious example of how distorted results can be under the Electoral College is that of Bush and Al Gore in 2000. Though Al Gore won the popular vote by 48.4% Bush won the votes of the Electoral College which resulted in him winning the Presidential election.
ZINN CHAPTER 4 1. What is the thesis of this chapter? Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries.
Using your knowledge as well as the passage, explain why the First Past The Post System has rarely resulted in coalition government at Westminster. First Past The Post (FPTP) or Simple plurality is the traditional system of voting in general and local elections in the UK. It is voting systems that enable people to vote through the ballot box in every election which take place in every 5 years. It’s a majoritarian system were the person with the most vote wins all in which it tend to favour larger, more established parties over those who support smaller parties. As a result of this, first past the post has rarely resulted in coalition government at Westminster because first past the post prevent other parties to form coalition government as
Whichever candidate has the most votes after these second-preferences have been allocated is declared winner. It is liked due to the fact that it ensures that fewer votes are wasted than in FPTP. However opponents argue that the overall outcome of the election may be determined by the preferences of those who support small, possibly extremist, parties. However despite less votes being wasted, and in a parliamentary election, a little more proportionality than FPTP, the winning candidate may not be the most popular but rather the least unpopular candidate. Additional member system is used in the Scottish Parliament elections and is a hybrid voting system.
There are 4 powers that the Vice President has according to the traditional constitution and one subsequent amendment has meant that there are now 5 powers. These are as follows; Counting and announcing the result of the Electoral College votes after a presidential election. This role is almost irrelevant for the vice president
Political spectrum: the range of political views 3. Partisanship: government action based on firm allegiance to a political party 4. Single-member districts: electoral district from which one person is chosen by the voters for each elected office. 5. Plurality: in an election, the number of votes that the leading candidate obtains over the next highest candidate.
The first limitation of the Congress is that, Party matters a lot in the performing of the Congress. As we all know, the political composition of the Congress is the result of the last term’s election voting, which means, there will definitely have the predominant Party and the disadvantageous Party concerning the seats they cover in the Congress (Lee, 2004). So, it is inevitable that one Party will be the majority Party in the Congress, thus to hold more power when deciding a certain issue. And the drawback of that situation is that, the final result coming from the Congress may not be the optimum choice, as it is the outcome of that majority Party (Lee, 2004). According to John (2007), in the 109th Congress, the Republican Party was the top one Party both in House and Senate, so, at that time, the decisions made were mostly inclined to the Republican Party, as no other Party can contend with it.