Due to the increasing presidential style of recent prime ministers and the party loyalty of the executive one can consider Parliament’s control of executive power minimal. However, due to the development of independent bodies surrounding Select Committees and the delaying of legislation by the House of Lords it can still be argued to be effective. The government usually has an overall majority. This is due to our voting system of FPTP which gives preference to the two main parties, normally giving them majorities (and increasingly large ones) as opposed to coalitions and minority governments which are produced through other voting systems such as AV in Scotland and Wales. Although we are currently in a coalition the government still has a majority through the combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
A merit of this process lay in the fact that whilst turnout is low, those who are committed to the result of the election do turn out. Hence, caucuses tend to favour more ideological candidates compared to voters in the alternative primary system. In 2008, Republican candidate Ron Paul who is on the libertarian wing of his party had some of his strongest showings in caucus states. For example, he won 21% in the North Dakota caucuses and 19% in Maine caucuses. This exemplifies their significance as it means that a candidate elected in a caucus state is essentially in line with the true ideology of the party and some of the party's most committed participants- who, pivotally invest a lot of time and money which is vital.
A party identification (PID) or long-term attachment that summarizes a person’s outlook and attitude on the merits of a political party is the most influential factor in the voting polls but not to me. Because I have seen and experienced different governments around the world, I have grown to believe in more than a party. I know I am not the only one. Each year more and more Americans are going through the process of dealingnment which means they are losing their identity with a political party. Even then, there are still a percentage of Americans that are strong partisans who feel their party affiliation is on top of everything.
In recent years, government mistrust has become rampant. In the past, approximately 75% of Americans trusted the government most or all of the time. However, this number has sharply decreased. In the Gallop’s annual governance poll conducted in September of 2011, only 19% of people were satisfied with the way the country was being governed. First, it is important to recognize that these polls suggest that Americans are displeased with the people in charge of our government, not the institution as a whole.
However these are not representative of the nation as a whole indicating that America has not transformed into a 50:50 nation. Lastly, the US is becoming increasingly polarised as parties become polarised e.g. Republicans are conservative and Democrats are liberal people are either one or the other they do not take on a more moderate view although there are some that do this suggests that the statement is in fact true and that America has turned into a nation split down the middle. Overall America has become a split nation with no real political party dominating the country for a long period of time. Despite Republican dominance from 1994 – 2006 the change from Republicans to Democrats to Republicans illustrates the divide in the nation additionally, the polarisation of parties has made it so that votes either support one party or the
It is difficult for a Backbench MP to influence government policy if a government has a large majority in Parliament. The power of individual backbench MPs is reduced making it harder to challenge the government. Also, the PM has powers of patronage which demand loyalty; few MPs want to cause a general election by defeating the government. Thus accepting their fate as lobby
Q&A: US mid-term elections 2010 The US has been holding mid-term elections, which decide the balance of power in Congress over the next two years. The Republicans made sweeping gains as they won control of the House of Representatives, but the Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. What do the results mean for President Barack Obama? President Obama's name did not appear on any ballot paper, but the elections are widely seen as an appraisal of his performance over the last two years. Going into the mid-terms, his Democratic Party had a majority in both houses.
To Vote or Not to Vote? Americans elect their senators and representatives. This direct link between the legislature and the people is a very important part of our democracy. Should Congress, then, reflect the will of the people? Or should they pay attention to their own points of view, even if they disagree with their constituents?
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. So, that situation is easy for the occurrence of political
If a party gains a majority it will be offered the chance to form government by the Queen. The MP is then responsible for representing all constituents, even those who didn’t elect the member. For example in 2005 George Galloway received only 18.4% of his constituents but was still elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. [1] This high proportion of constituents who didn’t vote for Galloway is not a unique anomaly, during the 2005 election only three MPs secured more than 40% of their constituents votes. It may be argued that voter apathy has a large influence on this