POS1041 0001 SP15 Exam 2 Notes The Electoral System March 3 2015 Parliamentary v Presidential Systems The US is a presidential system which means that voters are responsible and have o a direct role in electing the legislature and electing the head of the executive branch the president We currently have divided government which occurs when we have a president of one party and a legislative branch of another party Today Obama is a democrat and everything else is republican Unified government is the opposite when both are of the same party More often than not America operates under a divided government but the voters are the ones who make that happen This is only seen in a presidential system such as our own you wouldn t see this anywhere else in the world There s a blame game if something isn t going right This system inherently increases transaction costs Fragments power o A parliamentary system is where voters elect members to the lower chambers of the legislature Great Britain elects members to the house of congress The party that actually holds a majority of seats in the legislature gets control of the executive branch So how do you become the prime minister Voted in indirectly by voting in members of that party So UK citizens elected a conservative congress and whoever is the leader of that party takes office The US equivalent would be electing Republican Party and instead of being Speaker of the House they would become president This system focuses on party ideas because they know it has ramifications as to who controls the entire government Not possible to have a divided government in this system Just because you like a candidate doesn t mean you like the party so you can t vote on the basis of liking an individual People know where to place blame in this system but also where to give credit Transaction costs are much lower in this system Consolidates power Proportional Rule v Plurality Rule o Districts with plurality rule have a tendency is for two parties to form in equilibrium Why do we have just two parties Because of our electoral rule It s important for us as Americans to look beyond the oceans we always think we re the best form of democracy but we re actually completely unique Nobody else has our particular arrangements and if brought to any other countries it would result in tyranny I e when we tried to bring it to Iraq people used their majority power to be punitive towards the minority ISIS We can t just be na ve about the rest of the world if we wish to truly understand our own system of government o Plurality rule means whoever gets the most votes wins o Proportional Rule PR for short List PR system what parties will do is they will put before voters a list of potential candidates the number of candidates equals the number of seats in the legislature They will present a list of 100 names when there are 100 seats available In this system there are no districts we re trying to cast ballots to decide nationally how many seats in the legislature will be controlled by a particular party So voters go to the poll and say for example I like party B Lets say party B wins 30 of the votes in a PR system they win 30 of the seats 30 seats So the first 30 names from the original 100 person list get seats Party A may have won 25 of the votes 25 of the seats and first 25 on that list get seat Let s say party Z gets 5 of the vote then they still get 5 seats The order of each list matters very much the first one is usually the recognized leader of the party But how do you even get on the list Demonstrate that you are a strong loyal partisan If you were number 31 on party B s list you could either be more loyal or try to get more people to vote for your party The latter of which is more likely but the former is absolutely imperative You must be fiercely loyal and supports your party in every single vote or you ll get dropped from the list instantly and never get into the legislature ever again But this doesn t happen in the US There is no penalty for voting for a different party All you have to do in the US is say you re running pay a fee and say whatever party you re on People won t know who you are but our system has no control over who s on the ballot Party voting in the US congress is incredibly low which is something many Americans don t see The majority of votes in the US congress are Bi partisan A party vote is defined as a majority of one party votes against the majority of another party 51 vs 49 is a very minimal threshold Things usually get passed that are consensual things we can agree on are the things that get passed o In plurality rule system with single member districts the outcome is two parties Why does the third party always tend to disintegrate I e the reform Party in the US was all about the deficit We just have to fix it Okay but how why The deficit went away at the end of the nineties so the Reform Party did as well The Tea Party came up but then the republicans scooped them up In order to maintain a third party we d have to change our entire electoral system In this system if you get 5 of the votes you get nothing Most votes wins the end 49 Nope you get nothing o It s fundamental distinction not only in who gets elected but also in who gets represented You can t bring the US system to Iraq because their minorities need a voice the conformity costs would become to high and the minorities would leave How do they leave They pick up guns and revolt Again ISIS Party Centered v Candidate System o Candidate system you know the candidate o Part centered you vote for the party SPLIT TICKET VOTING The act of voting for candidates from different political parties for different offices In our system individuals are working to elect themselves with the limited ability of national political parties to support through money Individuals basically use their party as a front but they get money through POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES PACs A federally registered fund raising group that pools money from individuals to give political candidates and parties 6 years is the term in the US senate test question Individuals can only give at most 2 600 but they very rarely ever give that much 58 000 a day is the average to run senate campaigns luckily most people who run for senate are millionaires who spend their own money Understand Our system is candidate system it s up to the candidate to raise money which they get through PACs …
View Full Document
Unlocking...