Saturday, 2 October 2010
Majoritarianism
This political concept says that the majority(sometimes categorized by religion, social class etc) has a leading role within the society and is authorized to make decisions that affect the whole society. Majoritarianism is often being criticized by its opponents as a mob rule(Plato) However under democratic majoritarian political structure the majority would not exclude any minority from future participation in the democratic process.The most famous quasi-majoritarian system was Athenenian Democracy.
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How do minorities in the UK participate in the democratic process?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the two-ballot or second ballot system?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the AV system?
What is the supplementary vote system?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of majoritarian systems?
Under the Alternative Vote system the voters rank all the candidates (whose name appear on the ballot) in order of preference. As in FPTP, candidates stand for election in constituency and one MP is elected in each area.
ReplyDeleteIf any candidate receives more than 50% of first preferences in the initial ballot, then that candidate is elected.
If, however, no one gains majority of votes, the candidate with the lowest number of first preferences is eliminated and his second preferences are redistributed to the other candidates. This process is repeated, until one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote after redistributions.
Of course, voters are not obliged to indicate preferences on their ballot paper, or rank all the candidates, however in marginal seats second preferences might be crucial.
The AV is used in elections to the Australian House of Representatives.
I also described briefly other majority systems here: http://politicsovercoffeee.blogspot.com/2010/10/electoral-systems-part-1-majority.html ;)
Hope it will help you with your next handouts!