Asses the importance of the ethnic minority vote in the US political system The political system within the US consists of two parties; Democrats and Republicans. Whilst the Democrats conventionally gain the vote of the worse off citizens, the Republicans achieve the vote of the better off citizens; nevertheless, neither party are oblivious of the importance of the ethnic minorities. In 2008 Blacks voted at higher levels than they ever had in any other Presidential Election. Black voter turnout averages between 5% and 10% below that of the White voter turnout. Many Blacks doubt the political system has any value for them.
Many people say the ‘Commons are male-dominated since in 2005 only 19% of MP’s were women. However, in the early nineties the Labour Party had a massive female MP recruitment policy introduced for their party, whereby half of all Labour representatives standing for constituencies across the UK had to be women. While this was rejected in a court ruling as being unfair, it did show Labour tackling perceived sexism within Parliament. Since (statically speaking) women look after children and homes, they are more likely to be free to vote. Therefore, if a party could attract women voters by having female candidates they would have attracted a larger percentage of voters than parties focussing on attracting professional men, who would be too busy to vote.
Japan has the second highest suicide rate per 100,000 people in the world, according to a study by the Washington Post. The reason behind this ranking is clearly portrayed in the cause and effect status of the two texts Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior by Amy Chua and Suicide Note by Janice Mirikitani. Chua’s essay and Mirikitani’s poem go hand in hand with cause and effect, and the general ideas of this cause and effect are a cause for the high suicide rate in Japan as well as other Eastern countries. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior by Amy Chua is written to inform readers of the parenting method differences between Eastern parents and Western parents, as well as persuade the readers that the Eastern methods are “superior” or more effective. One point that Chua makes is that Eastern parenting is the correct method of parenting because they do not take the psyche or self esteem of the child into consideration during critique.
In the Obama vs. McCain election of 2012, Obama’s victory was strengthened by the fact that there was a much higher turnout of the young voters and voters that are parts of minority groups. Whereas, a great amount of Republican voters abstained for different reasons. This is a practical example of Differential Abstention and how it can affect general elections. To conclude, it can be shown that differential abstention can play a large part in who will win in any election, as shown by Obama in 2008. There are many reasons as to why people abstain from voting, starting from it being too cold outside and ranging to people not bothering to go out and
They also are ineffective at representing their constitution because out of 650 MPs, only 147 of them are female, and even fewer are ethnic minorities which means they are not effectively representing the population. Secondly, MPs are effective because they scrutinise and hold the government to account with questions. They can scrutinise the opposition, or if they are rebels for example, Nadine Dorries, they can scrutinise their own party. Recently, MPs have become even more under the Speaker John Berkow who has allowed increasing amounts of urgent questions, 25 in his first year. There is also the 10 minute question time, and ballot box at the end of Question Time.
The privileged and well organized wealthy upper class of this country dominate the polls, the majority of the U.S. is not represented in election, further slowing the progress of political reform. Voting is the most obvious way for the average American citizen to exercise their rights, though only one-third of eligible voters take part in mid-term congressional elections and there was only a 57.6 percent voter turnout in this last presidential election. Public officials can only respond to the information they are given, which is more often than not from the most advantaged Americans. Those who have higher incomes and have received the highest levels of formal education are more likely to be politically active, making their needs and values taken into account by government officials first and foremost. The influence of the minority proves to in turn promote the government unresponsive to the needs of the vast majority of the population, prompting middle and lower class Americans to believe that their vote does not matter and cannot make a difference.
They are held back by traditional gender roles. Many women thus have to work two jobs, at the workplace and at home as The U.S. is one of a few countries that doesn’t provide paid maternity leave, so women often lose the opportunity to advance. There is also a huge disparity of women in government positions, as the U.S. ranks #69 among countries with the highest percentage of women in government. Women make up 50% of the population in the United States, but only 17% of Congress and have never served as president. A large part of this has to do with stereotypes, as women are seen as weak and unlikely to serve better than their male counterparts on issues such as national defense.
Well, besides what has already been mentioned, it was based largely on higher black turnout, a bigger Hispanic vote, big numbers among younger voters and first-time voters, and more support from independents. Additionally, the 2008 exit poll found far more Democrats turned out than Republicans. In the exit poll four years ago, self-identified Democrats and Republicans each constituted 37 percent of the sample, but this year 39 percent of voters were Democrats compared with 32 percent of Republicans. Fewer Republican voters meant fewer votes for McCain (Election Results 2008). So, it appears that 2008 election was not one of ideological, or “political cultural,” change, but one merely of circumstances – circumstances that left a nation yearning for a change; a change in party, a change in views, and a change in presidential persona.
Obama, who announced this a couple of weeks ago, is in favor of taxing the rich citizens (making over 250,000 dollars a year as a family) a larger percent than the poor and middle class. You may have heard of the Bush Tax Cuts--this is when George Bush reduced taxes on the rich who were paying a larger percent of their money to the government than the poor and middle class. This also goes into the whole socialism aspect that many people have said Obama takes part in. Republicans are called conservatives, and this usually means that they are more for everyone for themselves. Democrats, or liberals, are usually in favor of taxing the poor less, and of healthcare for people who cannot afford it--this is known as Obamacare, which was repealed because it was considered unconstitutional.
In 2010, the total U.S. Hispanic population was 16 percent of the total U.S. population. By the year 2050 that number is expected to rise to 30.2 percent of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). Even though the U.S. population continues to grow in diversity; nurses remained a homogenous group. According to Maier-Lorentz (2008), “Approximately 90% of all Registered Nurses are Caucasian. Although Hispanics have become the majority minority in the U.S., it is estimated that there are only 2 % Hispanic Registered Nurses in the nursing profession (Minority Nursing Statistics, 2005)” (p.37).