Lecture 12 Flashcards
3 types of political systems
presidentialism & semi-presidentialism & parlamentarism
3 types of party systems
predominant party, two party system & multi party system
…are a way to assess preferences trough votes. What parties’ people like who gets the most votes etc. It is also the main way to select leaders and policies.
Elections
overtime … become the standard
Representative democracies
What is the purpose of an election?
is to express who people want to vote for. To make collective decisions. We won’t directly be involved in government decisions, but we choose people who are going to run our government. We choose who will represent our country and our government. There is also a transfer of power.
general elections or national elections are also called …
Parliamentary elections
For what do you vote for in Parliamentary elections ?
ou vote which parties we put in the government and then the biggest party/ coalition will choose who the prime minister will be.
Elections are important for these reasons
1.They are important in a democracy. A democracy requires the existence of elections, competition between parties in elections and the participation of voters.
- It is the easiest way to practice your political right
3.In some countries it is compulsory
… is a group of voters in a certain territorial area (districts). Each one is designed for several seats. The size of the constituency is decided based on the population of the area.
Constituency
… are the systems in which the winning party takes the seat the other votes are wasted.
Majoritarian electoral systems
… where the number of seats you get represent the % of votes you get. Here the majority does not matter.
Proportional representation
… is that you have more votes than others (not the majority) this is what you need in the first –past-the-vote-system to win the seats.
Plurality
… achieved with more than half the votes (50% + 1%) In the second -round system you take the two candidates who got the motes votes and the candidate that got the majority votes is elected.
the majority
… are votes that will not be represented in the parliament after the election outcome. Example if you vote for a smaller party and they do not get elected in parliament this can be seen as a wasted vote. Any vote that is not represented in a seat is considered wasted.
Wasted votes
… is the minimum amount (%) of vote you need to get a seat in parliament.
electoral treshold
… is the different ways in which votes are cast, counted and translated in seats. This is different for each system. The outcome will be very different depending on which system you use.
electoral system
what are the two electoral system we discussed ?
Majoritarian system & proportional system
First past the post /FPTP (Majoritarian)
There is one electoral seat in the parliament. The seat goes to the candidate with the most (not majority) votes. it is about plurality.
’’ the winner takes all’’
There is one candidate per party. In this system people tend to vote for the candidate rather then the party it self. This type of system is more personal. ex: uk & U.S.A
Two round system ( Majoritarian)
With this system the goal is to get more than 50% of the votes (51%+) . Key idea of this system is that the winning party receives majority of the votes through a two round voting system.
Round 1 includes all the candidates the two parties with the most votes advance to round two.
Round 2 includes the party who got the most votes in the previous round. Voter vote again this time the party that get the majority of the vote so 51% or above wins the election. ex: France
Advantages majoritarian system
- It is a simple form of election. It is easier to see who won the election since the person with the most votes won.
- This systems makes it easier for voters to connect with candidates and hold them accountable since it is more personal.
- It does make the government stronger because there are less parties which causes less fergmentation.
- It disadvantages extremist parties.
Disadvantages of Majoritarian system
- It leads to more wasted votes. Since the votes of the non-winning candidates does not count.
- It demotivates people to vote for smaller parties since your vote might be wasted.
- It leads to certain parties not / getting less seats since they are not the majoritarian vote.
… happens when the boundaries of electoral districts / constituencies are drawn to manipulate the outcome of votes (Favor one party over another) This is more likely to happen when it is political official (chosen by a party in charge) you draw the constituency line in territories. For example, if a republican draws the line in Favour for republican voters and party.
Gerrymandering
What proportional representation?
The goal of proportional representation is to not divide the country into district but to proportionally represent the amount of votes into the number of seats.
20% of the votes means 20% of the seats.
… is that the party choses the list before the election, voter choose the party but not the person (they vote on the list as a whole). Voters do not influence the order of the candidates only the party can. Portuguese parliament
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