This group of officials also known as “presidential electors” makes up the Electoral College. Each state is assigned a certain number of candidates, which are then narrowed down and elected to become the voice of that state come election time. In total the United States has 538 presidential electors. These officials decide which candidates will become the next president and vice president of the United States. Who ever said that the United States was a democracy lied and the Electoral College is great proof.
Education essential for good government—teach people to be good citizens. 3. Democracy is “mob rule,” yet also said power should not be located in a power autocrat. Believed in philosopher-kings—the smartest lovers of knowledge
One of the ways direct democracy is implemented in the UK is through the use of referendums. A referendum is called by the government to allow people to vote directly on an issue. One example of a recent referendum was the 2010 referendum to decide whether the UK should switch from the First past the post vote system to the AV system. The result was a 67.9% majority against changing the system. This shows hope the people can directly influence the way in which their democracy works and so is hence very democratic.
Another example is when Britain joined a referendum by becoming a part of the E.U. This was very controversial because the UK is a democracy and without the consultation of the people, the UK no longer seems democratic. Elective dictatorship ties in with another reason which is time lag. Time lag plays an important role in the UK as it takes 5 years before another general election is held. 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.
The Liberal Democrats entered into coalition talks with the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. The liberal democrats chose to go with the conservatives, together making the majority vote. This meant the new government was formed, ending 13 years of labour government, also with labours leader Gordon Brown resigning as prime minister and being taken over by David Cameron of conservative party and his deputy Nick Clegg of liberal democrats. Who is entitled to stand for election Candidates in a UK General Election must be 18 or above and a citizen of Britain, the republic of Ireland or a commonwealth country. A person will be stopped from standing for election if they have been declared bankrupt, they are in prison serving a sentence of at least 12 months, they have been found guilty of past election offences, they are already able to vote in the house of lords or they are a police officer, a member of the armed forces or a judge.
Queen or King is a head of state, but they don’t have much power and prime minister is head of government. Also people vote in general elections for MP‘s to present them. Who is entitled to stand People who want to put themselves forward to be an MP must be 18 years old, British citizen, Republic of Ireland or Commonwealth citizen free to remain. Certain people can’t become an MP’s and that is because if they’ve had bankruptcy , remains undercharged in Scotland, served in prison more than 12 months or civil servants, judges, people who work in police and armed forces. However, those who can stand for an election must pay £500 deposit and they must be nominated by 10 electors of the constituency they wish to stand in except they wish to stand as an individual.
Arguments supporting the idea that the second chamber should be fully elected include the idea that it would be more democratic to have an elected legislature which is relevant as the United Kingdom is a democratic country. In 1999, when Tony Blair was in office- the House of Lords act was pass which removed all but 92 hereditary peers from sitting and voting in the House of Lords. This was mainly triggered by the fact that when Thatcher wanted to pass the poll tax, the Lords were threating to not pass the bill, so the government decided to persuade hereditary peers who would not normally vote to vote for the poll tax which caused the legislation to pass. When Gordon Brown was in power from 2007-2010, he was unable to complete the reform of the upper house as he did not have the time due to the economic crisis, however- when the coalition came to office in 2010, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were both committed to reforming the second chamber by having it completely elected by using proportional representation. There have Proportional representation would make the second chamber more representative as it would allow smaller parties to have a
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
On the other hand, the single-issue parties, they only focus on only one public policy matter. The chapter also talks about President’s party is almost always more solidly united and better well-organized compare with other major party. However, competition often caused the leadership group in the party out of power. Federalism is a major reason for the decentralized nature of the two major political parties and also the nominating process is also a major cause of party decentralization. Often, the parties will fight with each other and compete with each other within their party during the nominating process.
A mandate and a manifesto can be distinguished between each other, as a party having a mandate is the result of their manifesto being accepted by the electorate. b) Explain the workings of three electoral systems used in the UK. (10) One electoral system used in the UK is First Past the Post, which is used in the elections to vote in members of Parliament. First Past the Post is a plurality system in which the candidate with the most votes has a plurality and wins; they don’t necessarily have the backing of the majority of the electorate. With this system the country is divided up into 650 constituencies with around 50,000 people in each one.