A voter could switch from voting for the Conservatives to vote for the Labour Party at the next election because they decide according to single issues. In general the public today is not really aligned to parties anymore. I would say that party allegiance is something which is nearly vanished in Britain’s voting behavior. There are still groups which are strongly related to one or the other party but that is not as common as was in the 50s and 60s. The important things today are which party has at the moment the right promises for the single voter and which party is better in delivering policy goals.
However, this is not true because the Congress is both an independent and co-equal branch of Government. As David Obey said “We may belong to the same party but we are an independent branch”. Checks and balances are required to keep the government stable and avoid the President going against the wishes of the people. “I think Barack Obama is terrific. But people still need to recognise we have an institutional responsibility to do oversight on the President” Garry Bass, Congress.
When voting in referendums, it is doubtful that most of the people voting have a complete idea on the decision they are making. Once the public has made a decision it is left to the legislators and government to chart out how the new law is to be implemented. Faced with these tough decisions, they might decide to amend the law or completely scrap it thereby overriding a decision made by the general
Voting for Our Future “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,” must vote. Americans have more power than they think they have, but only if each and every individual exercises his or her right to vote. The problem is that on an important day such as Election Day, only about 58 percent of the population votes. Why is that? Citizens bicker, complain, and protest; yet do not vote.
A “winner take all” sort of thing. It would bother you if you were on the losing side of that, and your vote is technically thrown away. What else is bothersome to Durbin is that the Electoral College distorts the election process, with some votes having more weight than others do. It is like your vote counts as one and your neighbor’s counts as three. It is undemocratic, un-American, and unfair.
Another problem was that even though there are anti-discrimination policies, a slight differential treatment towards minorities is still present. Employers expect and demand more input from minority groups and that is why people are hesitant to leave their workplace to cast a vote (Rivers, 2012). An outside source looks at voting from a different perspective. An interestingly opposing statistic is that minority groups with higher education and social status take the time to participate, as voting is very important to them. They want to take part in the choice of their government because it took so long and so much effort for them to receive the equal rights and abilities to enjoy democracy (Speel, 2010).
After all, if the people don’t like it, they can always vote them out of office! This dilemma has often been debated about a representative government: are the elected officials expected to vote the way the majority of his or her constituents would desire, as amplified by the famous observer of American democracy Alexis de Tocqueville? Or, are elected officials expected to
‘If it isn’t broken don’t fix it.’ Discuss with reference to the electoral systems used for national elections in the UK and USA. The first past the post systems used in both the USA and the UK unquestionably have the potential to produce election results that are not representative of the break down of total votes in an election, providing results that don’t reflect voter wishes. One may argue that the electoral systems used in both the USA and UK marginalize minorities, causes wasted, insignificant votes and promote voter apathy. However despite the numerous criticisms of first past the post it has continued to be the system in place to decide the President in the USA and dictate which party forms government, and thus which party leader becomes Prime Minister in the UK, suggesting the system has its advantages. Proponents of the UK and US voting methods also often cite the lack of a credible alternative as a reason for the retention of the current systems.
Matthew Carney Final Exam Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 6 W1. The United States isn’t a democracy in fact it’s actually a democratic republic. In a contest between a direct democracy and a democratic republic I would have to choose the latter. In a direct democracy people would tend to vote more along the lines of how they feel rather than by law. Electing representatives that can spend their time going over budgets and bills as their job is being more efficient.
The Importance of Voting Voting is a usually formal expression of opinion or will in response to a proposed decision; especially: one given as an indication of approval or disapproval of a proposal, motion, or candidate for office. The question is why is it important to vote? Being able to vote was not a right. Everyone could not vote centuries ago until 1971 when the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 and gave all Americans the right to vote. Many fought for, marched for, and died for over the ability to vote centuries ago; but several key reasons will explain why voting is such an important thing to do.