Party and Electoral Systems and Citizen Organizations

Proportional Representation

Parties will gain seats in the legislative branch based on the percentage of votes they get.

Can help increase the amount of parties or minorities like women

better way to represent all of the voters in the district

leads to more party loyalty from the candidates

SMDP Ballot (Single Member District Plurality)

System where each district chooses one candidate with the most number of votes.

Normally ends up with a 2 party system

Helps bigger parties

Better connection between the candidate and the voter

China, how are members of NPC selected

One party system - The National Peoples’ Congress selects its own members through local elections

Iran majles

207 districts, where Majles members are elected (some choose more than one member)

The candidates are (“vetted”) checked by the Guardian council

political parties have a hard time supporting candidates because many of them may be thrown out by the majles (vetting)

Therefore, political parties are not very erll established

Mexico’s 2 Chambers of congress

Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber)

• 300 members elected with SNDP system

• 200 members elected with proportional representation

Chamber of Senators (upper chamber)

• 96 members

• 32/96 of the members elected with proportional representation system

• they have gender requirement (“quota”) so that there is enough women representation too

Nigeria Houses

House of Representatives

• SNDP for electing all members

• the amount of representatives depends on the size of the state

Senate

• 3 members directly elected from each of the 36 states

• SNDP

Russia Houses

Duma

• half of the members chosen through SNDP and other half through proportional representation

United Russia party is the dominant party, (basically one party system although there are other ones)

Presidential Election Systems

Different countries have different systems for how they will elect the president

Mexico - President elected by a plurality of all the people in the country (That means whoever gets the most votes)

Nigeria - The president has to win the most votes, but also has to get 25% of votes in 2/3 of the states (This makes ethnic groups very special)

Russia and Iran - The president has to win at least 50% (“absolute majority”) of the popular vote (everyone in the country’s votes count)

if no one wins the first round, a second round will happen between the top two people.

For Russia, Iran, and Nigeria, the rules make sure that the winner reflects most peoples’ wishes in the country.

UK uses first past the post system to elect members of parliament and house of commons. (Whoever has the most votes wins, dont need majority)

• this can “exaggerate” the scale of victory of the largest party (they may win the district and it may seem like EVERYBODY in the district likes them, but reality they might have won only as little as 51% of votes (making them seem more popular than they are))

Election Regulatory Agencies

Different countries use Electoral Regulatory Organizations to set rules about voting

For example in Iran, the guardian council doesn’t allow people who don’t support the regime or are not muslim.

For example in Mexico and Nigeria they made “Independent election commissions” which try to stop people from voter fraud (lying or trying to vote more than once) and trying to rig the election.

Appointment Systems

Where some people are chosen/selected for their position by other people in the government, rather than being elected.

Some regimes use an appointment system to include different types of people and be more diverse, while other regimes use it to choose the people they want and have control

UK - Appoints house of lords, who are recommended by the prime minister and then approved by the monarch (king/queen)

Iran - Half the Guardian Council is chosen by the Supreme leader, and the other half is chosen by the judiciary, but the Majles has to approve them

Russia - The Federal Council members are chosen by regional governments. The different regions of the country (“Federal Districts”) allow Putin to have more control as he can just choose who supports him to be in charge.

China, Political Party System

One Main Party

• Only one party is allowed, The CCP (Chinese Communist Party)

• They want to keep their values, but they still allow other parties to exist just to have them basically (“to broaden discussion and consultation”)

Russia, Political Party System

President can run for multiple terms

One Party Dominance

• There are rules to make sure one party has power in Russia

• They make it harder to register for a party (or for small parties to grow and gain representation)

• they censor the media so that other parties cannot say bad stuff

• make it harder for parties to get their names on the ballet

• they removed having governors in 2004 (“removed gubernatorial elections”)

Mexico, Political Party System

President can run for 1 term

They are making rules to try and include more parties

• trying to reduce the strong parties power

• making the National Electoral Institute stronger

PAN PRI and Morena parties most popular

Nigeria, Political Party System

Presidential 2 term limit

Nigeria has a multi party system

• 30 registered parties

• 2 strong parties, The People’s Democratic Party, and the All Progressives Congress of Nigeria

The UK, political party system

The two major parties, Conservative and Labour, control most of the government, while many other parties have some representation still.

Election rules have made it easier for regional parties to win electoral seats while still maintaining the major 2 parties

Social Movements

Involve a large group of people joining together to try and make a difference

different from an interest group, since interest groups only focus on changing one specific thing

sometimes social movements might have a hard time gaining support

Some social movements that put pressure on the governments are :

LGBTQ rights

Native people rights

fair and transparent elections

sharing the money made from oil and stuff

Nigeria, Social Movements

Nigeria usually has minority groups like the Muslims in the north, trying to gain rights or fair treatment. Sometimes they get extreme, for example with Boko Haram, the terrorist group

Russia, Social Movements

Protest for gay marriage after it was banned by the DUMA

Iran, Social Movements

Protesting corruption in the government

Mexico, Social movements

People were protesting the wealth gap, since the NAFTA (North america trade agreement with usa and canada) wasn’t impacting their lives too much

Pluralism vs. Corporatism

Pluralism - There is more than one center of government, many groups can influence the government decisions.

• promotes competition between groups that aren’t connected to the government

• associated with democratic regimes

Corporatism - The government has control over the groups and can choose which ones participate in the government

• Government has (“SPA”) groups to represent all of the different sections, agriculture, labor, business, etc... to maintain control

• associated with authoritarian regimes

Plurality vs Majority

Plurality - Candidate with most votes wins

Majority - Candidate with over 50% votes wins

One Party vs One party Dominance

One party system only has one political party allowed in government, For example China CCP

One party Dominance is where one party wins every single time, like in Russia

Where is there lots of competition between parties?

Uk (regional parties; many), Nigeria, Mexico (although PRI party wins most of the time and is very popular)

There is less to no competition in : China, Iran, Russia

Coalition Government

What happens when multipal parties work together to get control in the government, usually happens when there is not a single party with most of the power

Often to comes from a “fragmented” legislature and can be unstable