Essay on Government and Electoral Systems

Proportionality is a key factor in assessing the fairness of a voting system, if a parties number of votes is not equal or close to their number of seats in parliament then the voters’ are being misrepresented. AMS is a PR system, which results in a party’s

Minority parties would become more viable if proportional representation was in place. In our system today, a minority party has no chance of any representation. But, using the proportional system, they would receive a percentage of the seats in the legislature corresponding with the votes. A multi party system would develop, representing a number of minorities. Issue based candidates would also take precedence. Issues directly related to the people of the United States would have representation. This in turn would encourage voter turnout because peoples' views would be represented rather than merely a choice of several candidates. This also offers a greater diversity of candidates willing to address and focus on our problems, as we exist in the 21st century.

In this essay I will assess the outcomes of Additional Member system, First Past the Post system and the Closed Party List system. The F-P-T-P system is used to elect the members of House of Commons and local government in England and Wales. Voters select candidates, and do so by marking his or her name with an ‘X’ on the ballot paper. This reflects the principle of ‘one person, one vote’. The Additional Members system is used in Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, and Northern Ireland Assembly and Greater London assembly. It is a mixed system made up of F-P-T-P and party-list elements. The Regional party list (or the closed party list) is used to elect the

The majoritarian electoral democracy, gives the people the power and/or right to participate directly in a political part and to self-represent. Followed by Abraham Lincoln’s famous slogan “ of the people, by the people, for the people”. The majoritarian political system, influence whether or not a person vote for a particular candidate or a particular party. This is known as the elections. Where the citizen has been giving the opportunity to choose a single person based on ones on belief or a whole party ( Ex; in the U.S we have two major parties from where we can choose on , democratic party and republican party. Among others single small parties). We called it Economic Elite Domination when the minority or small portion of a party gets the

After all, a central aspect of the proportional representation argument is that the government should be formatted in a manner that allows for the fair representation of the political opinion of Canadians. However, Kam points out how legislation is passed in an effort to represent the will of the majority of Canadians. But, he also argues that there is no such thing as a true majority, as there is no single policy that voters prefer to all others. In turn, he claims that “manufactured majorities” created as a result of the SMP system are not necessarily a bad thing, as they give parliament the stability needed to pass legislation. In comparison, he points out how the MMP system would give power to a number of smaller parties, and that these parties would impair parliament’s ability to pass policy.

Every country differs in their preference of political system to govern their countries. For democratic countries, two possible choices of governing are the presidential system and the parliamentary system. Since both the presidential and the parliamentary systems have their own strengths and weaknesses, many scholars have examined these two forms of government, and debate on which political system is more successful in governance. In this paper, I will first provide a detailed analysis of both the parliamentary and the presidential system. I will also evaluate each system’s strengths and weaknesses, addressing any differences as well as any commonalities. Finally, I will conclude by using historical examples to analyze and support the

Representation inclusivity has therefore made large strides in provincial and federal parliaments, but elections remain the strongest way to increase inclusivity through the election of brand new members.

Similar to the consensus model the majoritarian model of governance aims to govern for the people, however, the majoritarian model believes the non-governing party should always oppose (Lijphart 30). This form of governance indicates that once a party is not elected into office, their ideas for ruling should be excluded from all forms of governance. This form of governing excludes a large portion of the population, not only the members of the opposition but as well as the people who voted for the opposing

Britain is considering changing current first past the post voting system (FPTP) to proportional representation (PR). The main reason is that FPTP is “quasi-democratic” voting system under which there is only one majority party ruling the government and it does not represent wishes of all voters as some votes are wasted. Whereas, PR seems to be the best alternative voting system with proportionality of seats in mandatory places, more parties ruling government and etc. Let us look at these two voting systems and analyze whether PR is suitable and alternative change for FPTP and do advantages of PR outweigh disadvantages.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

An ideology is a set of ideas that embodies ones goals, expectations and actions. An ideology can also be defined as a set of ideas that are introduced by the ruling class of society to all the other members of the public. Therefore every political activity or idea embodies an ideology. Ideology. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:03, May 11, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org. Many political parties base their style of governance and political programs on an ideology and this helps determine how political change should be incorporated in our country. That is why the aim of this essay is to examine, compare and contrast the political ideologies of two major political parties in post- apartheid South Africa. South Africa has a multi-party political system that incorporates thirteen parties who sit in parliament or the national assembly. The national assembly consists of 400 seats and for a party to have majority rule on decision making they have to have a 2/3 majority. South Africa's Parliament is made up of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The National Assembly is much more prominent; they pass legislation and oversee their executive duties. Their members are elected for a five year term. All South African citizens over the age of 18 are allowed to vote, but only if they register. South Africa so far has had democratic elections in 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009. Before 1994 only white South Africans were allowed to vote under the system

South Africa endured one of the worst colonialisation any country could have went through, whereby the Apartheid regime objectively disregarded the economic participation of the black over to those of the white population. However, the new democratic government would thereby be challenged with effectively having to deal with the challenges in which the past government had left behind. Therefore, in effectively trying to deal with the issues, alternative approaches have to be implemented in order to deliver on the challenges of the public. On the contrary, this essay will critically compare and discuss the liberal and free market, as well as the state interventionist approach as alternative solutions in dealing with current issues of social security, the health and school systems. Which would be able to transform current developmental challenges facing South Africa. In summary, the essay will thereby state which approach can transform South Africa in effectively dealing with developmental challenges currently facing South Africa.

The New Zealand government at both a Local and National level is an excellent example of a modern, Representative Democracy. Different election systems, including First Past the Post (FPP), Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV), are used to allow electors to select representatives to sit on Councils, Boards and in Parliament. Some elements of Constitutional Monarchy are present in the New Zealand system of democratically elected representatives within a constitutional Monarchy contrasts well with the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Through a fair electoral system, the South African government has elected and been led by the African National Congress (ANC) over the past twenty years. Yet, with the limitations on rights, they have not been able to identify with all of the main circumstances that make up a democratic government. A democratic political system must meet “three essential conditions: meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties) for the major positions of government; a highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through regular and fair elections,…and a level of civil and political liberties – freedom of expression, freedom of press,

South Africa in recent years has been striving to stabilize a strong foundation for their emerging democratic constitution. Barkan and Reynolds, two researches discuss the positive and negative effects of each electoral process and provide numerous details of how each process may in turn affect South Africa. Barkan provides a good point that the single-member districts require both communication between the all parties of government and the government representatives with the constituents, in order to produce the results at an unfair advantage or misrepresentation to any group. Reynolds agrees with Barkan, but believes that an entirely new system including portions of the current system, proportionality representation, need inclusion to the single-member district processing, in order to have a equal representation between majority and minority groups alike. I agree with Reynolds that the current system needs to remain, but adapt with the additional approach called the single-member district, as proposed by Barkan.