Democracy in Practice

At its heart democracy is based on the idea that decisions should be made according to “the will of the people.” Leaders must be accountable to the people who elect them. Early democracies were direct democracies  all citizens participate in making all decisions. Direct democracy’s problem = inefficient (takes too long), not practical to ask everyone about everything.

Most modern democracies are representative democracies citizens choose others (representatives) to make decisions for them In Canada, our Federal representatives are MP’s (Members of Parliament), Provincial representatives are MLA’s (Members of Legislative Assembly) Representative democracy is more practical than direct democracy b/c not ALL citizens have to participate. People also only vote in elections and on a few major issues (these are called referendums or plebiscites)

The separation of powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of gov’t divides responsibilities between different people to ensure accountability. Executive: - responsible for enforcing or executing laws (P.M., Cabinet, civil service) Legislative: - responsible for making laws (House of Commons, Senate) Judicial: - responsible for interpreting the laws (Supreme Court)

Representation by population – “rep by pop” – each citizen gets one vote, and each elected rep should serve the same number of citizens. First Past the Post (FPTP) – the person with the most votes wins, even if they have less than 50% of the votes. EXAMPLE OF FPTP: Kyle Ranson 34% of votes in one riding Jordan Harris 13% of votes in one riding Brooklyn Meunier 18% of votes in one riding Dylan Dueck 35% of votes in one riding Who wins the seat for the 30-2 riding? (Everyone else gets nothing!)

EXAMPLE OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION: Proportional Representation – seats are equal to a party’s total percentage of the popular vote EXAMPLE OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION: If there were 200 seats total in the WGM House of Commons: Kaydin Knutson Kongress – 29% of vote = 58 seats New Dallas Party (NDP) – 34% of vote = 68 seats United Dunbar Front – 4% of vote = 8 seats Progressive Pollards – 33% of vote = 66 seats Under FPTP it is unlikely Ben’s party would have won any seats, but under proportional representation they at least get a small number.

Proportional rep. helps out smaller parties and results in more minority government situations or coalition governments where two parties must work together. The Conservatives were a minority gov’t from 2006-2011 and needed at least one other party to vote with them for any bill to pass. FPTP usually leads to majority government situations, where one party has at least 50% of the seats, and can therefore pass bills and make laws more quickly and easily. (like Harper and Conservatives have right now).

Major political parties in Canada: Confidence motions are important bills or votes in the House of Commons where if the gov’t loses the vote they must resign and a new election will be held. This is known as responsible government in Canada, because the opposition parties hold the governing party responsible for their actions. Major political parties in Canada: Conservative Party Liberal Party New Democratic Party (NDP) Bloc Quebecois (BQ) Green Party

Generally speaking the Bloc and NDP are left-wing parties that favour economic equality while the Liberals and Greens are centrist and the Conservatives are more right-wing.

Party solidarity – elected representatives from each party are expected to vote according to their party’s official position (ideology) except when there is a free vote. Lobby groups – also called interest groups, special interest groups – try to influence the decisions of parties and elected reps.  usually focused on ONE specific issue (ex: protecting environment, equal rights for LGBT people, etc.) Consensus decision making – may also be used to make decisions based on group discussion rather than voting, used mostly by First Nations groups