...in contemporary American society the most underestimated is perhaps the demarcation of political lines. In a myriad of scenarios the establishment of borders for voting districts would appear to be utterly in disorder. However, these lines are neither merely imposed at random, nor arbitrarily in chaos. Instead, cognizance of voting districts’ true nature is delineated advantageously through evaluation of historical precedents. The misuse of drawing voting district lines has been present for centuries. On February 12, 1812 Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, caused the birth of a new term for the English lexicon: gerrymander. In 1812, Governor Gerry manipulated the lines of voting districts in Massachusetts in order to secure his incumbency. The shapes...
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...Times article, ‘What We’ve Seen in Australia with Mandatory Voting,’ it’s made very apparent in the article that America does indeed have a serious voter turnout problem. Is this really as big an issue as some would have you believe? Or is it better that we allow a continued disproportionate level of democratic power remain where it is? Although the implementation of compulsory voting, or mandatory voting, would mean that voter turnout would naturally increase, compulsory voting would neither benefit in our society or my district. This is largely due to the fact that even though my district would have more regulation in place to ensure a ballet is turned in, The majority of my district is uneducated and these would be the people showing up to vote. In Lisa Hill’s article, she compares Australia and the US several times but in truth, there is no comparison to be had. The United States is a world power and has almost 14 times as many people in our country than Australia. So while Ms Hill might be pleased with the way this program works in Australia, could you imagine the turnout here in the United States? More importantly, would the polls be able to handle the influx of voters turning out to take part in their constitutional right to have part in democracy It is a privilege to take part in democracy and have your voice heard through the casting of a vote. Americans do not have a right to possess this voting power nor is it their duty to do so. Our country was founded by men...
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...where the people participate in direct way to form in government. Election is not only a process where people go on cast his vote, though it is a festival of democracy system. Democracy depend on people, people depend on election there they elected his representative to parliament or government. Government needs to go with election for taking fresh memorandum through people of his country. Election shows the country is rule by the people of that country. Whenever government need for a fresh new term of his government they will go for election. Election is a power of government also a power of people. The dominance of the Indian National Congress was broken for the first time in 1977, with the defeat of the party led by Indira Gandhi, by an unlikely coalition of all the major other parties, which protested against the imposition of a controversial Emergency from 1975–1977. A similar coalition, led by VP Singh was swept to power in 1989 in the wake of major allegations of corruption against the incumbent Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. It, too, lost its steam in 1990. In 1992, the heretofore one-party-dominant politics in India gave way to a coalition system wherein no single party can expect to achieve a majority in the Parliament to form a government, but rather has to depend on a process of coalition building with...
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...“Well, I don’t know,” he absently pondered from his chair, “I’m not really the voting type, I mean, I don’t trust politicians and all that stuff.” This verbatim exchange occurred between a peer and I during a voter-registration drive that took place at my high school in preparation for the primary elections in Ohio, only a week or two after the drive. “What do you mean?” I shot back, “Don’t you want your voice to be heard?” Unfortunately, I was met with a polite goodbye and one less registered voter. It is a defeating reality that in this country my contemporaries occupy the least engaged portion of the voting population. It is societal trends such as this that must undergo the most scrutiny in order to change the narratives they create. The...
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...Compulsory voting refers to law which require eligible citizens to register and vote in nation elections. Some people believe mandatory voting is the heart of a democracy. Others claim that compulsory voting is unconstitutional. American citizens should not be required to vote in national elections as it goes against many things and is totally wrong. Mandatory voting goes against American traditions of freedom and choice. Compulsory voting in addition, is a violation of one’s democratic rights. In a democracy, every citizen has certain rights that the government and/or state cannot take away from them. A democracy is a government in which the supreme power is held by the people and used by them through representation. When you force citizens...
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...this form of voting. The current Electoral College vote doesn’t show the true feelings of United States citizens for electing presidents, due to the results from past presidential elections, so there has to be an elimination of this form of voting. Electoral College votes are determined by “...the number of representatives each state has in the house, plus the two senators in the senate.” Each state has a different number of electoral college votes, because the more populated states have more representatives in the house, thus their electoral college votes are higher. Even though Washington D.C. isn’t a state, it still has three electoral college votes. When presidential elections are being televised, viewers can see which states have awarded the candidates with their electoral college votes because, blue is democratic, red is republican, and purple refers to swing states, which are states that aren’t specifically democratic or republican. The Popular vote is “...the total of all the votes all throughout the country for one candidate”. The popular vote includes the electoral college votes, and every single vote for a specific candidate. When presidential elections are being televised, viewers can see how many popular votes every candidate receives. The current Electoral College vote doesn’t show the true feelings of United States citizens for electing presidents, due to the results from past presidential elections, so there has to be an elimination of this form of voting. Presidential...
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...‘The election campaign is more important than long-term factors in shaping voting behaviour.’ Discuss. There are many different factors which effect voting behaviour, both long and short term, and in this essay I will be discussing whether I believe the more short-term election campaign, or long term factors have more influence on the way people vote. The region in which you live has a huge impact as to the way you are predicted to vote. In the north, especially in industrial areas, you would be much more likely to vote labour. This is because in these industrial areas there are incredibly high numbers of working class people who work in factories and mines for example and labour has many more policies put in place to help people who are of a lower class. An example of these policies is lower taxes which means working class people will have more money than they would otherwise have should the Tories be in power. In post war 2/3 of the working class population in Britain voted labour, and 4/5 of middle class voting Torie. ‘Class is the basis of British politics, all else is embellishment.’ -Pelzer (1967). This would suggest that 50 years ago many people believed that partisan alignment was purely based on class. This would suggest that purely based on partisan alignment, long term factors are more important in shaping voting behaviour. Ethnicity is also a factor in shaping voting behaviour. 80% of people from black and Asian origins living in the UK have voted labour since...
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...The Electoral College Should Be Abolished The Electoral College has been around for over 200 years. It was made in a time when the population of the United States wasn’t as large as it is now so, the Electoral College helped give smaller populated areas more power in elections. There are 538 qualified electors and to become president you’ll need 270 votes from the Electoral College. The amount of electoral votes a state gets is determined by the population of the whole state. A state is given one electoral vote for every representative and two for each senator. When a person goes to vote they aren't really voting for the president they are voting for an elector to cast their vote on the candidate that gets the most popular votes in that state. So, if the population of a state votes for a presidential candidate by even 1% more than the other, all the electors in that state need to cast in their vote for the presidential candidate that won by that 1%. For years, the question of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has been floating around. The Electoral College should be abolished. It takes away voting rights of...
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...where each politician acts in the interests of their constituents. However, this system could be undemocratic as each MP belongs to a specific party, and therefore could vote on behalf of their party rather than with the opinions of the constituents. Although Britain is a democracy, some people and institutions which have power have not been elected by the people. This could be seen as undemocratic. An example of this is the House of Lords; the members are unelected, yet still hold power as bills cannot be passed without being considered by both Houses. The House of Commons could be viewed as more democratic than the Lords, as all MPs are elected, for example Ian Lucas was elected as the MP for Wrexham. The UK has a ‘first past the post’ electoral system. Many seen this as undemocratic as it allows a political party to gain seats in parliament even if another party had thousands more votes. An example is the Green party, who gained a seat in parliament with around 300,000 votes in the last election. UKIP had over three times this amount of votes, yet they failed to gain a single seat. Another issue is the fact that in the UK we have a fusion of power. This means that the executive are part of the legislature. The problem with this is that laws can realistically only be passed if the government back them, so the government controls parliament to a degree. With this in mind, we can assume that countries such as the USA, which...
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...Voters in the United States don’t seem to do such a great job of showing up to vote, which is especially true when it’s time for the presidential election. Hard to believe that only a little bit more than half of eligible voters in this country actually participate in voting in the presidential elections. This seems preposterous, especially when you consider that voting plays a major part in our government. I mean, what’s a democracy without the right to vote? But sadly, a plethora of Americans don’t take advantage of that right. In my opinion, at least two causes contribute to this dilemma: people feeling disconnected from a government that seems too impersonal to them, and/or people getting tired of the mudslinging in politics. As government has grown in size and complexity, many people see less need for their participation. “Why should I vote if I can’t affect the political process?” seems to be the view taken by many people who do not vote. They have heard again and again that every vote counts, that their vote counts, but they just don’t believe it. Human beings also have the capability of being just plain lazy. To those who use this as an excuse, it’s too much trouble to register to vote and then actually go to the polls on election day. The second cause of voter apathy in my opinion, is all the mudslinging present in politics today. When one candidate says something about their opponent’s personal life, it makes people wonder what kind of person would make such an...
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...certain felons from voting (until and if granted the state governor's pardon) even if those people have served their prison sentence, parole, probation, and paid all fines. The remaining 36 states fall somewhere in between,” (ProCon.org, 2009). Felons should have the right to vote, as they have paid or are paying their debt to society, and the millions of missing felony votes impact all of us. How many times have you voted in a close race and your candidate did not win? Imagine if just a fraction of the felons that share your views were allowed to vote just like they are allowed to pay taxes. Millions of Americans in our republic are not represented at every election due to non-felony voting, which can be said to be undemocratic, and as such, felons should be allowed to vote in all states. “The legislature has sent a clear message that voting is a fundamental right that should not be stripped away from people who are working, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, “said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the right of citizens of the United States to vote is a fundamental right. An author from the New York Times agrees, stating that, "...it diminishes American democracy to not allow people who have paid their debt to society to help select their leaders" (Author, 2006). As of 2004, an estimated 5.26 million people with a felony conviction are barred from voting in federal, state...
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...THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING PART IN VOTING PROCESS Voting is the process where an individual takes part in choosing electoral leaders. This process can be done through secret ballot or open voting. These leaders include the political leaders like the president, senators, congressional representatives, governors. Others can be managerial positions in the public government. The federal constitution entails voting as a crucial process. It is a process that the government wishes every citizen who has attain the legal years for voting to participate. This paper is going to highlight why it is extremely beneficial for everyone to take part in the voting process. First, voting is important because it makes certain the people are able to elect the capable and deserve visionary leaders. It is a mechanism, which has developed to make certain that leaders with poor qualities exit the race and are not selected by the electorate. In a voting process, the people are able to vote for a leader whose vision and mission attend to the needs of the people. If one does not participate in the voting process, this means that a leader, whose mission does not meet your needs, may be selected in a leadership position. Second, voting process acts as a checkup process or referendum for the leaders and their respective political parties. Leaders, who hold remarkable senior and powerful positions, may not be assessed properly due to the immense powers of their office. The law forbids the...
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...for such a poor, vast and largely illiterate nation was considered foolhardy by many observers, at home and abroad. Nevertheless the first general election was held with great rigour, enthusiasm and success in 1952. In the meantime, a Constitution reflecting the political and ideological goals of the new nation had been adopted. It was authored by the Constituent Assembly made up of 299 members who represented the enormous class, religious and linguistic diversity of India’s population and who after much debate and deliberation set out the framework for India’s future as a republic and parliamentary democracy. Enshrined within it were the principles of the separation of powers, a universal Indian citizen with constitutional rights, equality before the law, the separation of civil and military powers, and the necessity for political competition. The press remains as free as any in the world and contributes to a lively and highly contested public sphere. So according to the democratic checklist of institutional arrangements, India’s democratic system is in a reasonable shape....
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...Assess the various measures, other than electoral reform, that have been suggested to improve democracy in the UK. The other measures to improve democracy in the UK are: having more referendums, lowering the voting age, making voting compulsory and finally the use of digital democracy. And this essay will assess all the measures and also it will determine which measure is the best to improve democracy in the UK. The first measure, which has been suggested to improve democracy in the UK, is the use of more referendums. A referendum is a popular vote where the people are asked to determine an important political or constitutional issue directly. A referendum has pros and cons. Firstly referendums are a device of direct democracy, which gives the general public direct and unmediated control over the governments decision making, this ensures that the public’s views and interests are always taken account of and are not distorted by politicians who claim to “represent them”. Another advantage is that referendums actually help to create a better informed, more educated and more politically engaged electorate, which gives the members of the public a strong incentive to cast there vote. Also another advantage is that referendums reduce the power of the government, because the government has less control over their outcome than it does over parliament, and therefore citizens are protected against the danger of over mighty government. And a final advantage to referendums is that there...
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...and many local voters were heading to the polls to select new leadership. Now it’s a known fact that local voter turnout is never very high. We see more middle-aged citizens and the elderly turning out for these elections which, based on the information presented in our discussion question, is about 20-30% of registered voters. But how does this tie-in to the quote. I am in agreement that a low voter turn-out is not necessarily a bad thing. These voters usually represent those voters who are knowledgeable about the issues at hand and want to see the best person for the job get elected. But does this continuous process yield a better outcome as a whole. The populace needs to be educated about the issues and understand what they are voting for. If people tend to vote on blind faith or, worse, emotion, it is an ignorant and potentially costly move for us all. In order for communities as a whole to bind together and elect the right people for the job, they must take the time and energy to get involved and to become educated on the important issues that are affecting them and their families. The question was asked in our discussion as to what kind of a program we could devise to not only increase voter turn-out but to educate the common voter in such a way as to not make them feel like an idiot. This would be community participation at its best. Here is my idea. First, it is important to educate the voters. A good way of doing this is placing candidate and initiative...
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