TOPIC 2- ELECTORAL SYSTEMS, REFERENDUMS AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Electoral System

Is the set of rules that determine how votes are cast, counted, and translated into political representation

Election

are held to fill seat in a parliament or some other institution

Non-Proportional Representation Electoral Systems (3)

• Single-member plurality

• Alternative Vote

• Two Round System

Single-member plurality

The simplest system of all is single-member plurality (SMP), also known sometimes as 'first-past-the-post' (FPTP).Voters simply make a mark, such as placing a cross, beside their choice of candidate, and the seat is then awarded to the candidate who receives most votes

Alternative Vote

Voters rank candidates in order of preference.If no candidate gets 50% + 1 in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The votes of the eliminated candidate are transferred to the remaining candidates based on voters' second choices.

Two Round System

If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the first round, a second round takes place in which only certain candidates (perhaps the top two, or those who exceeded a certain percentage of the votes) are permitted to proceed to the second round, where whoever wins the most votes is the winner.

Proportional Representation Electoral Systems (2 Method)

• Highest Average Method by D’hondt

• Largest Remainders

Highest Average Method

allocate seats sequentially by applying a series of divisors to a party's vote total.

Largest Remainders

methods proceed by the calculations of a quota, after which each party is awarded a seat for each full quota it has and then the unlocated seats are given to the parties whose remainders are largest.

3 Dimensions of Variation

• District Magnitude

• Intra-Party Choice

• Thresholds

District Magnitude

refers to the number of seats available in an electoral district which can range from 1 to hundreds, depending on the system used.

Intra Party Choice

Determines the extent to which voters influence which candidates within a party are elected.

Thresholds

Minimum vote share required for a party to win seats, preventing excessive parliamentary fragmentation.

Mixed Systems

This system contains both candidate-based and party-based votes, thus corresponding to both microcosm and principal-agent models.

● The best-known example is Germany’s system, but similar models exist in Japan, Mexico, and Hungary

What is Referendum?

A referendum is a direct vote in which the electorate decides on a specific policy issue, law, or constitutional change.

Dimensions of Referendums

1st Dimension:

The holding of a referendum might be according to prescribed rules or at the discretion of political actors.

2nd Dimension:

The referendum might be mandatory in the circumstance or optional.

3rd Dimension:

The referendum might take place at the request of a number of voters, or of political institutions.

4th Dimension:

Concerns the relationship between those calling the referendum and those whose proposal is being voted on

5th Dimension:

The significance of the referendum result, which may be binding or merely indicative of the public’s view, with another actor such the parliament having the final say

3 Types of Referendum

• Decision Controlling Referendums

• Decision Promoting Referendums

• Ad-hoc Referendums

Decision Controlling Referendums

It is where an actor opposed to some proposal may invoke the people as a potential veto player, and is more common.

Decision-Promoting Referendum

is a type of referendum that initiates, approves, or enacts a new law, policy, or constitutional change.

Ad-hoc Referendum

is open to partisan manipulation, for example by a government that decides to put an issue to a referendum in the hope of boosting its position or dividing the opposition.

Single transferable vote

A similar notion of candidate linkage with increased proportionality is present in the single. It is only used in three countries – Australia, for its Senate elections, the Republic of Ireland and Malta. In this system, the election is held across a number of constituencies, each containing multiple seats.

Issues During The Elections In Western Democracy

1. Declining Turnout

2. Voter Apathy

3. Political Disengagement

4. Other negative forms of perception of the ballot box and electoral candidates

Category of People in Elections

Politicised

Depoliticised

Apathetic

Politicised

Raise the issues as a matter of concern and urgency which devalues and threatens democratic life and freedoms in these nations.

Depoliticised

Counter that a withdrawal from politics is a sign of a healthy society with few explosive issues, and generalised consensus.

Apathetic

The believe of voting: ‘doesn’t achieve anything’ and ‘doesn’t change anything’

Two Ideal Types of Representative Politics

• Microcosm Model

• Principal-Agent Model

Microcosm Model

This model argues that legislatures should be miniature versions of the society they represent. It was given credence by President John Adams when he opined that the American Congress should be ‘a portrait’ of the nation in miniature

Principal-Agent Model

This is more extreme than the microcosm model. It argues that the composition of the legislature does not matter, but rather the effectiveness of the decision-making and the representation of the voters’ wishes.

There are a number of different determinants and distortion to proportionality such as;

• Malapportionment

• Gerrymandering

• Electoral Thresholds

• Party Laws

Malapportionment

Changes in constituency profile and size over time mean that unchanged electoral boundaries and constituency sizes result in unequal representation

Gerrymandering

Politicians deliberately redraw boundaries, often in bizarre ways, in order to maximise concentrations of supporters and consequently win more seats.

Electoral Thresholds

Where parties need to win a certain proportion of the vote to qualify for seats.

Party Laws

Impose certain criteria on the kinds of party which are allowed to run in a race.

Voter Suppression

Laws like literacy tests or strict registration rules have historically excluded certain groups. Even after such laws are removed, past discrimination can still deter participation.

Systemic Barriers

Factors like mandatory registration, work schedules, long travel distances, and physical disabilities can make voting difficult.

4 Basic types of Election

• Maintaining (or normal) election

• Converting election

• Deviating election

• Realigning or critical elections -this break the existing moulds.

Maintaining (or normal) election

Party vote shares change little and alignments existing prior to the election are maintained

Converting election

Party vote shares are maintained but their underlying support patterns change. An example of this is the situation in Sweden throughout the 1970s and 1980s where party shares of the vote remained quite constant and the Social Democrats remained in power, but their support base shifted significantly from working class to middle class.

Deviating election

a short term situation, exemplified by a sharp drop-in support for a party that is spread evenly across the electorate. An example of this is the situation in Sweden throughout the 1970s and 1980s where party shares of the vote remained quite constant and the Social Democrats remained in power, but their support base shifted significantly from working class to middle class.

Turnout

is defined as the proportion of the registered electorate who vote in a given election. is seen as indicating a high degree of participation in the political system as long as it remains buoyant and indicates that the great majority of voters cast a vote over the majority of elections held.

Main Reason Why People Vote or Not

• Modernization -people become more aware of alternative ways to influence decisions and may question the importance of voting.

• Social Change-which had been major determinants of political participation and party identification, has also loosened the traditional bonds which developed between parties and specific groups of voters.

• Dissatisfaction with Political Parties-Lack of perceived difference between parties is also a factor in deterring voters from participating in elections.

• Dissatisfaction with government-Voters feel disenfranchised that their votes do not matter.

• Institutional Factors- voters may feel it is pointless voting in safe seats or regions, where specific parties have won with comfortable majorities.

Who Are Non-Voters?

• Abstainers -Tend to be less partisan and more disillusioned by governments and political parties than voters.

• Those under the age of 24 and the unemployed are even less likely to vote.

• Members of Ethnic minorities are less likely to register and turnout

Political Party

A political party is a group united by shared principles to promote the national interest.

Gallagher’s 3 General Groupings of Party Families

• Party families of the left - comprising socialists/social democrats, communists, parties of the new left and other variants.

• Party families of the right and center- comprising Christian democrats, secular conservatives, liberals, and parties of the far right.

• Other party families- a varied category which includes agrarians, greens, nationalists, regionalists, ethnic parties and special interest parties.

The Lipset – Rokkan model

This model provides a variable explanation of the emergence of modern parties and the party system but is not appropriate as an explanation of current parties or party systems.

• as a result of three major traumas of modern history, the Reformation, national revolutions and the Industrial Revolution, society became divided along a series of social cleavages or divisions.

The Partisan Identification Model

People as an individual develop abiding loyalties to particular parties on the basis of closeness of fit between that party’s position on a variety of issues and the individual’s own values and attitudes.

The Michigan Model

Best known example of a model based on party identification. Suggests that voting choices are dependent on three factors whose main contribution is acting as channels for shaping party identification and voting behavior.

Party identification

the individual’s affective orientation to an important group object in their environment.

• is confirmation of a self-identity with the party, held over an extended period of time.

Partisan Dealignment

people are now much more likely to desert their long-term party of choice and shop-around because of changing political opportunities. a ‘weakening in party loyalties’

Political Participation

Refers to a wide range of activities, including voting in elections, donating time or money or political campaigns, running for office, writing petitions, boycotting, organizing unions, etc.

Sites of Participation

1. People can get involved in a public arena to advertise and communicate demands to anyone willing to listen.

2. They may target policy makers in legislatures of the executive branch as addresses of their communications.

3. They may get involved in the selection process of those who aspire to legislative or executive office.

Modes of Participation

• Social Movement

• Interests Groups

• Political Parties

Social Movement

referes to streams of activities that target demand policy makers through community, street, and media events and their primary sites of articulation.

Interest groups

stream of activities where people express their opinions, demands, and concerns to lawmakers and government officials as their main way of participating in politics.

Political Parties

where participants cooperate and pool resources in order to nominate legislative candidates, help them attract voters, and organize voter turnout in favor of such candidates amount to the formation.

The Paradox of Collective Action

No individual belonging to a polity can be excluded from enjoying (or suffering) the consequences of having such goods, regardless of whether that individual has contributed to their production or not.

Step Good

a good that is not supplied at all up to certain levels of collective action, but supplied massively just beyond threshold.

3 low-risk modes of political participation

1. signing a petition

2. joining a boycott

3. attending a lawful demonstration

Ghent System

Initiated in countries where socialists have become a highly competitive party to win executive control. In countries with the________, the increasing risk of unemployment prompted wage earners to rally to labor unions even more vigorously than in the past.

Single non-transferable vote system

which has been used in Puerto Rico, Japan and Taiwan, among others, multiple members will be elected according to their plurality ranking.

Social Change

affecting in particular class and religious divisions or cleavages, which had been major determinants of political participation and party identification has also loosened the traditional bonds which developed between parties and specific groups of voters.

Modernization

theories suggest that as a country becomes more effective in terms of economic development, post-industrialism and the growth of the tertiary sector, growth in the level and spread of education, welfare, social and geographic mobility and perhaps especially extension and diversification of the mass media allowing for dissemination of more political information, citizens are more likely to question the point of voting as a way of influencing decision-making as they will become more aware of alternative strategies

Dissatisfaction with political parties

Declining turnout is also related to people becoming disillusioned with political partiesresulting in a decline in loyalty to a particular party over time, a propensity to ‘shop around’ and vote for different parties or general alienation from the party process of ‘doing politics’. also known as partisan dealignment.

Dissatisfaction with government

voters feel disenfranchised in the sense that their votes do not matter, or simply that they are unrepresented. This may be because their views on the importance of particular issues are perceived as having been ignored or that government is corrupt.

Institutional factors

notably the electoral system, can also feed this cynicism. In the case of plurality systems, voters may feel it is pointless voting in ‘safe’ seats or regions, where specific parties have won with comfortable majorities over many elections. Another problem, especially pertinent to the UK, is that sometimes constituency boundary configurations may favour one party rather than another.