Electoral System & Democracy

F UNCTIONS OF E LECTIONS  Most change in the United States comes about on the basis of elections.  Elections generally allow us to avoid  Riots  General strikes  Coups d'etats  Elections serve  to legitimate governments  to fill public offices and organize governments  to allow people with different views and policy agendas to come to power  to ensure that the government remains accountable to the people.

D IFFERENT K INDS OF E LECTIONS  Primary Elections  General Elections  Initiative, Referendum, and Recall  Initiatives allow citizens to propose legislation and submit it to popular vote.  A referendum allows the legislature to submit proposed legislation for popular approval.  Recall elections allow citizens to remove someone from office.

P RESIDENTIAL E LECTIONS  Choosing the nation’s chief executive is a long, exhilarating, exhausting process that often begins even before the previous election ends!  The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  Six steps to the presidency Primaries (spring) Convention (summer) Campaign (fall) General Election (November) Electoral College (December) Count by Congress (January)

E LECTORAL C OLLEGE  The Electoral College was a compromise created by the Framers to ensure that the president was chosen intelligently and with the input of each of the states.  The number of electors is determined by the federal representation for each state.  For example, California has 52 members of the House of Representatives and 2 Senators – 54 electoral votes.

E LECTORAL C OLLEGE  There are a total of 538 electoral votes (535 members of Congress and 3 for the District of Columbia)  A majority of 270 wins the presidency.  Just as George W. Bush did in 2000, a candidate can win a majority of electoral votes with a minority of popular votes and still be elected to the office.

P OSSIBLE R EFORMS?  District Pan  Allocate electoral votes according to popular vote results in congressional districts  Provide an incentive for greater voter involvement and party vitality  Possible for the less dominant party to win electoral votes in districts where it enjoys a higher level of support  Proportional Plan  Reduces the likelihood of “minority” presidents  Allocate electoral votes within the states to reflect the actual support  Popular Vote

P RESIDENTIAL E LECTION 2000 Al Gore (D) 50,996,116 votes 48% 21 States Won 266 Electoral Votes George Bush (R) 50,456,169 votes 48% 30 States Won 271 Electoral Votes

I NCUMBENCY Incumbency advantage – the electoral edge afforded to those already in office…gained via…  Edge in visibility  Experience  Organization  Fund raising ability

EL ECTORAL S YSTEMS Two broad types of electoral systems are used in almost all democracies:  Single-member-district plurality  Proportional representation

S INGLE -M EMBER -D ISTRICT P LURALITY S YSTEM  The state is divided into districts, usually of roughly equal populations  One representative is elected from each district  Plurality wins (most votes)  U.S.,Canada, Britain, India

P ROPORTIONAL R EPRESENTATION Political parties’ representation in the legislative body is set roughly proportional to their strength in the electorate.

T RADE -O FF ?  Electoral participation higher under PR  PR favors smaller parties  SMDP ties legislators to a locality  SMDP favors large parties, hurts small ones

V OTING B EHAVIOR Voter Participation About 50% of the eligible adult population votes regularly. About 25% are occasional voters. About 35% rarely or never vote.

W HO V OTES?  Income – people with higher incomes have a higher tendency to vote.  Age – older people tend to vote more often than younger people (less than half of eligible year olds are registered to vote).  Gender – Since 1980, women have a higher tendency to vote for Democrats than Republicans.  Race – in general, whites tend to vote more regularly than African-Americans (this may be due to income and education not race).

W HO V OTES?  Education (high)  Parental participation  Occupation (high status)  Religion  Exposure to media  Geographic region

W HO V OTES?  Party Identification  Perception of the candidates  Issue preferences  Political culture

V OTER T URNOUT  Australia 96%  South Africa 86%  Denmark 83%  Germany 78%  Britain 78%  Israel 77%  Canada 69%  Japan 67%  Russia 54%  Mexico 52%  India 50%  U.S. 48%

D OES L OW V OTER T URNOUT M ATTER? Is low voter turnout a problem in a democracy? Do we want the uninformed or poor and uneducated voting?