The Electoral System Is The Single Most Important Institution

The AMS and FPTP are voting systems in use for the Scottish Parliament and House of Commons elections respectively. It can be argued that AMS gives voters more choice and better representation than FPTP, and in order to assess the validity of this argument 3 key indicators must be analysed: constituency links; proportionality and representation of smaller parties.

Parliament is very effective when dealing with the public and their interests and needs like when they redress public grievances to make sure they are listened too. However, parliament isn’t so effective on the representative side of things. This is because the electoral system that we use isn’t very fair and excludes smaller parties of a chance of being voted into parliament. This therefore means a large number of public votes have been

While the United Kingdom is considered a representative democracy it is arguable to how representative it is of everyone. It is highly unlikely that you would ever find an MP is Parliament who is from a lower class background with the majority of MPs coming from the middle and upper classes. This shows a problem with the UK’s system as not everyone is getting their voices heard in this regard. While it is possible for pressure groups to get their views heard by governments, they will ensure that pressure groups do not become so powerful they steal the government's legitimacy.

When the Constitutional Convention gathered in 1784 they had the difficult task of determining how our government should be assembled and what systems we should use to elect them. They quickly decided congress should have the powers to pass laws and the people should elect these people to ensure they are following the will of the people. But who should elect the president?

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

A parliamentary government is a democratic form of government which operates on a party system. It is the most popular and widely adopted form of democracy. A state that operates on a parliamentary system is run by two executives, firstly the head of state who is either a monarch or president who then appoints a prime minister as the head of government. A parliament can be run by either a single majority political party or as a coalition government in which more than one party collaborate to form the government. In this essay I will be assessing the key strengths and weaknesses associated with a parliamentary government. In doing so I will conclude that whilst a parliamentary government has weaknesses its strengths outweigh these and therefore it is the superior form of democratic government.

For this study, my research question is “does representation on the Canadian House of Commons affect likelihood of political participation of visible minority groups?” The Canadian House of Commons is not a mirror representation of the Canadian population, so underrepresented groups may not feel as if their voice is being heard in the Canadian government.

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.

In the past, backbencher Member of Parliaments have proven to be able to wield a great deal of power. Backbenchers have the means of voicing their concerns through caucus meetings, House of Commons committees, and private member bills. However the issue depends on when, and if, they want to wield that power. In addition, the growing predominance of influential prime ministerial power have further undermined the powers of MPs, thus making them more and more ineffectual in representing their constituents. Reforms need to be made as the current parliamentary system does not sufficiently provide the backbench government with enough influence to hold the prime minster accountable. Increasing support for independent MP initiatives and decreasing the retribution they face for these initiatives will boost the willingness for backbench contribution. This shifts the power from being centralized at the prime minister to a more

The most important issue in relation to the Canadian electoral process is the debate over whether or not the state should implement electoral reform for federal elections. It is my stance that replacing the Single Member Plurality system (SMP) with the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) is undeniably in the best interest of Canadians, and I will attempt to prove this by contrasting The Limits: Electoral Systems and Electoral Reform - Or How I Came to Love SMP by Christopher Kam, who believes in the current SMP system, and Getting What You Vote For by John Hiemstra, who pushes for a change in favour of the MMP system. This paper will conclude with further critical analysis, as well as my justified stance the MMP system is clearly superior.

It can vary between models, just as a plurality model may, however most models have voters cast two votes, one vote for the party and one for the riding representative. The focus of this essay will be more on the New Zealand variation of the Mixed Member Proportional System, which works as such:

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.

the United Kingdom unlike most other countries does not have a codified constitution to restrict the powers of the Parliament, the main check on power of the British Parliament is the sovereignty of the future parliaments. The European Union has been growing since its establishment and its growth has been considered a threat to the Parliamentary Sovereignty of the UK, since their joining of the EU in 1973. This essay will showcase the treaties, institutions, cases, and acts that have eroded the sovereignty of the UK Parliament and will conclude that the development of the EU will only further reduce the power of Parliamentary Sovereignty as long as the United Kingdom stays a member of the EU.

Women make up 51% of the New Zealand population, however, women in New Zealand parliament only make up just over 30% in parliament (2014). For women to be represented in parliament, it means that women need to be seen as a ‘norm’ in government, and therefore all positions of power. This under-representation can be linked to factors such as the environment and the culture of the New Zealand parliament and political parties. It is important to note that women are not a homogenous group; and we have to include ethnicity and class, which links into opportunity. This gender gap in parliament has caused societal issues to be silenced and minority groups to be left out of decision making and therefore society.

New Zealand is currently practicing democracy system, a system where the powers are vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representations such as public elections (Merriam-Webster online dictionary, n.d). Hence, parliamentary elections must be done every three years to elect new members of Parliament (MPs). On 1986, the formation of Constitution Act 1986 make UK completely powerless to legislate for New Zealand as the residual