Thursday June 18th, 2015

 Legitimacy: ‘degree to which citizens accept the actions…of government [and] state actors’ ◦ Democratic Legitimacy  Representative or Indirect Democracy  Direct Democracy

 Voting: “the aspect of the voter-government relationship…the opportunity for individual citizens to choose politicians who best meet their interests and preferences”  Typical Rules on Voting: ◦ Age restrictions ◦ Citizenship ◦ Fairness?  Means testing

 Who gets to run? ◦ Parties, independents, age, wealth  Rotten and Pocket Boroughs  Gerrymandering  Apathy vs Boredom ◦ Compulsory voting? ◦ Who votes?

Source: The Economist

 The more work participation requires of citizens, the less likely they are to participate  Important variables that impact participation, age, gender, class and political attitudes ◦ Putnam: Bowling Alone ◦ Nevitte: a shift in sites of political participation?

 Non-Proportional ◦ FPTP (Canada, US, UK) ◦ Majoritarian  Run-off System (France-President), Alternative (Australia – House of Reps)  Proportional ◦ Party List System (Israel) ◦ STV (Ireland; Australia - Senate)  Mixed Systems ◦ Additional Member System/Top-up System ◦ Mixed Member Proportional (Germany, New Zealand)

 The primary goal of non-proportional system is to emphasize local candidate ◦ Pluralities usually win ◦ Vote % and seat % are not = ◦ Wasted votes ◦ Works best in 2 party system (own problems)  The primary goal of PR systems is to have a proportional outcome ◦ vote % = seats % ◦ Multi-member districts ◦ Fewer wasted votes (thresholds) ◦ Less focus on local (districts much larger) ◦ Formula: total number of votes (+1) total number of seats +1

 The primary goal of Mixed Member Proportional or ‘top-up’ systems are to emphasize the positives of both, while limiting negatives. ◦ Local candidates ◦ More proportionality ◦ Fewer wasted votes ◦ More parties ◦ Regional emphasis too

 Political Party: “political parties are organized groups that place members as candidates for election with the goal of governing the political system” – MacLeod and Wood  Agglomeration of ideas (a call-back to political philosophy) ◦ Based either on ideologies or political values in the system  Have become part of political identity  What is democracy without parties?

 Party System: “interaction among relevant parties that shapes political competition and the nature of government formation” – Stewart  How many parties contest elections? How many parties can win legislative seats? How many parties can win government?  One party dominant, two party, multi-party, ◦ And a half party?

 Typology: ◦ Cadre Parties  Made up of a small group of notables/elites, small membership, no say in policy, privately funded ◦ Mass Parties  Inclusive party, ideological, large membership, significant voice in policy, small donation driven ◦ Catch-all parties  Non-ideological, large membership, but less say in policy (something for everyone)

 Recent development: ◦ Electoral-Professional Parties  Run by professionals, not volunteers, leader-oriented, membership largely ignored to benefit of wider public, low funding from membership ◦ Brokerage Parties  Essentially, specific to Canada, aggregate interests to overcome cleavages, build coalitions of interest, ‘franchise system ◦ Interest Parties

 Making public policy ◦ Used to be primary function of parties ◦ Meeting held frequently (every 1-2 years), where party members debate policy ◦ “Official party policy” not too official  Elite recruitment function ◦ Party affiliation essentially necessary for election ◦ Membership plays role (usually) in selecting nominees

 Governments, Votes and Elections ◦ Party leadership selects executive ◦ Party leadership negotiates alliances ◦ Organizes members of the legislature  Party discipline and the Whip  So how successful are parties? ◦ Emphasis on leader, rather than membership ◦ Membership’s role, ultimately, in choosing leaders  Policy change no longer from grassroots, but from change in personnel

 Different states have different rules governing when elections are called ◦ some states have different rules for different parts of the government  How does one win an election? ◦ What’s stronger? A positive or negative message? ◦ Negative campaigns, attacks ads and contrast ads

 Primary source of information for public ◦ Concentration of ownership  ‘Horse race’ has become dominant style of coverage  Sound-byte politics  Image politics

 Electoral financing ‘rules’ ◦ Canada – capped political donations, capped spending; parties and third party advertisers  $ ($1500 this year) ◦ US, less so (2002; 2010) – Citizens United ◦ Limits derived from concept of ‘equity’ and fairness  Theoretical limit in the US is $117,000 every two years ◦ Money = Speech/Expression?  PACs and Super PACs

 Few countries use direct democracy regularly, but many have some variants  Referendums/Plebiscites ◦ States in the US, BC, Canada for Constitutional Matters, the EU for major Constitutional Matters  Initiative ◦ BC, California  Recall ◦ BC, California