Philip Converse's Argument Against The Idea Of Democratic Theory

At a glance, the Liberal and Conservative party may look like they occupy opposite sides of the Canadian political spectrum. However, when examined closely one can find many similarities between both parties. Marland and Wesley define brokerage parties as “shock absorbers” because they aim to confide regional conflicts. For example, The Conservatives in 2006, under Stephen harper aimed to reach power through various promises that aimed to appeal to different regions and/or different groups of people. For example:

The electoral system in Canada is also known as a “first past the post” system. “First past the post” means the candidate with the highest number of votes wins the congressional seat, whereas the other candidates with a lower number of votes don’t get any representation. There are many cons to this system that will be highlighted throughout this essay. I will argue that the electoral system requires reform due to the discrepancies between the percentage of popular votes and the number of seats won. Canada’s electoral system has many problems and is not seen as fully democratic since it has provided poor representation for both candidates that win and lose. Candidates can win seats with less than 50% of votes, meaning that even if the majority of the nation, or province did not vote for the candidate they still win the election as they consume the highest number of votes among the parties. FPTP allows two people in different ridings to get the same number of votes with the outcome of one winner since the distribution of votes and seats are unequal. The system can also encourage strategic voting such as not voting for whom you think is the best fit but voting for the candidate that seems most likely to win in order to beat candidate you dislike. FPTP leads to an imbalance of power and has the potential for corruption.

For many years since 1879 citizens of the United States wait in line to vote for the next great president who will help the country stand tall for another four years. But the mistake doesn’t lie in who you vote for, but what you are voting for and supporting. We sometimes ask ourselves, “what does each party do?” or “what are their beliefs for our country?”

Canada’s friendly neighbor to the South, the US, has an electoral system that is composed of 3 separate elections, one of them deciding the head of state. The president elected by the people and he or she is the determining person of the country’s political system. In the US runs like a majority system” In Canada, however, elections are held slightly differently. Citizens vote for a Member of Parliament in a 308-seat house and candidates win not by a majority, unlike in the US, but by a plurality. This means that a candidate can actually win by simply having more votes than the other candidates. This method of representative democracy, in general, does not cause too much controversy in a global scope but has

The issue of electoral reform has become more important than ever in Canada in recent years as the general public has come to realize that our current first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, formally known as single-member plurality (SMP) has produced majority governments of questionable legitimacy. Of the major democracies in the world, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only countries that still have SMP systems in place. Interestingly enough, there has been enormous political tension and division in the last few years in these countries, culminating with the election results in Canada and the USA this year that polarized both countries. In the last year we have seen

In Margaret Adsett’s article on young voters in Canada, she discusses the growing problem of low youth involvement in politics. In the paper, she tries to explain why the number of young voters has gone down from 70 per cent to 40 per cent between 1970 and 2000.

With his announcement on August 2, 2015 Prime Minister Stephen Harper set in motion a 78-day election campaign, one of the longest and quite possibly the most expensive in Canadian history (Maloney, 2015). The structural constraints posed by the first-past-the-post electoral system, and the institutional constraints of the parliamentary system and campaign spending legislation were all potentially beneficial to Harper and the Conservative Party, but his underestimation of strategic voting and the power of social media, combined with his use of polarising debates and the decision of many popular incumbent Tory MP’s not to run, led to his party’s downfall and the creation of a Liberal majority government. This essay delves deeper into the factors behind the Conservative Party’s loss in the October 2015 Canadian election, in an attempt to understand why they were unable to secure a fourth mandate and come out first-past-the-other parties.

The surprising voter turnout at these elections is a powerful example of the upsides downs happening in politics and it is illustrative of what makes politics interesting as we can never be too sure of what may happen: new government elected, fresh start for Canada, the path towards a new political future is activate in order to preserve an ideal democracy every citizen hopes

How can the Canadian government be dominated by one ruler when it has democratic elections with many competing parties? Mellon believes that Canadian elections have low voter turnouts and even lower public interest. Canadian elections are essentially sporadic. Finally, Mellon also believes that prime ministers “…are supported by a growing circle of advisors, pollsters, and spin doctors that help protect their position,” (Hugh 175). The main focus of Mellon’s argument is this idea of a prime-ministerial government.

Furthermore, populism plays an imperative role in Alberta’s political culture. In fact, Stewart and Archer (2000) maintain that “Alberta politics is leadership politics… encouraging direct, populist links between the leader and the public (pg 172-173). Hence, Prentice’s decision to receive Wildrose floor-crossers, as well as make hazardous public statements may have annulled the possibility of a populist link between Albertans and his leadership. Furthermore, it is important to note that while positive perceptions of Prentice were faltering amongst Albertan voters, the Progressive Conservative’s campaign strategy was to portray the party leader as front and centre. This was despite the growing disaffection of Albertan voters towards Prentice. Therefore, the strategy undertaken by the Progressive Conservatives’ jeopardized their party’s support, and contributed to the election’s drastic

The year 2015 has been a historic one for Canadian politics. As a result of one of the longest Canadians elections in history, all three major party leaders had ample amount of time to illustrate their vision for Canada through their policies and beliefs. In Peter Loewen’s, What Canadians Know About the Ideology of Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau, and Tom Mulcair, he describes ideology as a means of governance that each leader believes would be in the best interest for Canadians. He goes to show how these respective ideologies guide the policies that each leader campaigns on. Creating hegemony through this campaigning which ultimately reflects the outcome of the elections. The several policies presented by Trudeau, Harper, and Mulcair offer

Canadian Political Culture, in a nation- state context, can be break down as beliefs and attitudes that Canadian have of political objects( Jackson, Politics in Canada.1994).

There is a fundamental problem with the democratic process in Canada. This problem is rooted within our electoral system. However, there is a promising solution to this issue. Canada should adopt the mixed-member proportional representation electoral system (MMP) at the federal level if we wish to see the progression of modern democracy. The failure to do so will result in a stagnant political system that is caught in the past and unable to rise to the contemporary challenges that representative democracies face. If Canada chooses to embrace the MMP electoral system it will reap the benefits of greater proportionality, prevent the centralization of power that is occurring in Parliament and among political parties through an increased

Why do Americans have limited amount of political knowledge? It’s because the public lacks interest in politics. They rely on group/party loyalty, rather than reasoning. Their responses change randomly from survey to survey. Recent research shows that the public knows some basic things. For example, they know the location of the capital and the length of president’s term, but they lack knowledge about other basic things. About 50% know there are 2 senators for each state, and only 66% know which party controls the House. They show high instability of their preferences, so explosion of information sources has not helped. The authors Greenburg and Page believe that political “trivia” may not be a good measure of adequate knowledge. They also mentioned that the reason for the instability of preference is because people change their minds and reflect on multidimensional ideology. It’s understandable that American citizens have lost trust in the government as well as interest, but the group of people that show the least amount of interest in politics and voting are the young generation.

Canada is one of the largest and most culturally diverse countries in the world. These characteristics make the democratic governing of the country a difficult task. A democratic model is needed that respects the fundamental rights and freedoms of various diverse cultures, and unites these cultures over a huge land mass as Canadians. To do this the Canadian government is one which is pluralist. Pluralism is the ideology that groups, (in Canada's case political parties), should rule in government. These parties help protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of everyone living in Canada, regardless of their ethnicity, or religious beliefs. The role political parties play in Canada is vital for