In their most recent general election the 3rd parties of Britain and America experienced significantly different outcomes. While the Liberal Democrats are now in a coalition the American Libertarian party received 0.99% of the popular vote. The clear failure of 3rd parties to break the monopoly of power held by the Democrats and Republicans can be explained by the electoral system, costs involved and influence of the media.…
Completion of an independent third party examination and assessment of the appropriateness of Senator Duffy’s travel and living allowance expense claims from April 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012, more specifically:…
The correlations between a candidate running for election and a voter who participates in the election, in terms of support and participation, often involve the use of shared attributes to explain how said correlations have an impact on the outcome of the election. In a representative democracy such as the United States, the belief is that those who vote in elections wield the power to select government officials, who then in turn create, uphold, or interpret the law of the land accordingly. Those who participate in elections, therefore, believe that the candidate they select will make decisions or introduce legislature according to the beliefs that those who voted share with one another. A voter or a group of voters are more likely to support a candidate if they share at least one attribute with one another. In order to understand how candidate selection based on belief is accomplished, an account of how exactly comparisons between the candidate and the voter must be made to accommodate a multitude of potential attributes. Both physical attributes, such as race, and non-physical attributes, such as political ideology, can be used to compare and contrast a candidate with a voter. With this data, we can then predict the outcome between a certain attribute that a voter shares (or does not share) with a candidate and the support that candidate receives from that conglomerate.…
• What is a third party and what role do they have in American government?…
While most of the country was tied up with the competition going on during the 2012 Presidential Election between the Democrat and Republican Presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, many other Americans were rooting for the underdogs. The gap between Romney and Obama in the popular vote was more significant than you'd think. Growing support for third party candidates don't have the major political parties worried, but evidence shows that they should think about gearing up for competition in future Presidential elections. With Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party 2012 Presidential candidate, ahead in the national popular vote amongst the third parties and the Green Party holding the majority of offices as compared to other third parties, the mainstream parties may have to begin gearing up against growing and very real additional competition.…
Ever since its creation at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Electoral College has been the most widely debated aspect in the Constitution. There have been over 700 proposed constitutional amendments aimed at fixing or abolishing this process. And Congress has on several occasions held highly publicized hearings on Electoral College reform but overall has remained fairly inactive (Best, p. vii). And while the Electoral College is a cornerstone of our Constitution and therefore a major aspect of American democracy and government, its very nature is quite unfair and undemocratic. Many of its aspects portray biases and favor certain groups of people and certain states. It is deemed archaic, undemocratic, complex, ambiguous, indirect, and dangerous by many scholars and is in direct need of reforming (Kura, p. 30). It especially contradicts Walter Stone’s instrumental voting model for the Electoral College at first makes one believe as if one’s vote counts but eventually one figures out that it is in fact quite unimportant (Stone, p. 51). For with the Electoral College, the people are not in charge but rather the system is – the Electoral College presidential election system that is.…
Jonathan Safran Foer once quoted “I see myself as someone who makes things. Definitions have never done anything but constrain”. This quote carries weight among not only among communities but also the younger generations as new definitions are constantly being changed. As a definition changes, it can open new doors for interpretations as well as close doors for creation among a generation that thrives to make a change. One particular example of this is the word libertarian, a word that may need calling upon to change its definition from the one it was given over fifty years ago.…
One advantage of the Electoral System is that it favors states with smaller populations. Without the Electoral system smaller states would be ignored in presidential elections. But because of this system the voice of the smaller states and minority groups like farmers are being preserved. With the State of the Union Address the President sets the agenda for the Congress and the legislations, similarity the Electoral College sets the agenda for how a presidential candidates campaign must be arranged. Candidates tend to campaign more in states that are swing states, and this is an advantage for voters who are dubious. Undecided voters in swing states can use this as an opportunity to educate themselves on the various policies each candidate stand for. The Electoral College system helps promote a two party system which is beneficial to our nation. Due to the winner take all rule, third and fourth parties help deny a plurality to a candidate, but third parties do not have the hope of winning large numbers of electoral college votes. This system discourages third parties from running and promotes “a stable balance by accommodating varied interests and opinions.” A two party system not only reduces political dissension but also increases a country’s harmony but increasing compromise and consensus between the two parties. Another advantage of the Electoral College is that it gives states the absolute power to participate…
Political parties rose to prominence while others faded into history, but gradually the Republican Party and the Democratic Party rose to occupy the two positions within the party system of the United States all the way into the contemporary era. However, while a two-party system is designed to discourage the rise of alternative third parties, there have been occasions where third parties have risen to challenge the Republicans and Democrats for one of their positions within the political system (Jackson, J. S., 2015). The range of successes of the third party challengers of Republican and Democrat hegemony has varied greatly with some parties managing to secure office in local offices, others having members of their party within the national government, and others managing to split either the voter base of the dominant parties such as in the election of…
Michael M. Uhlmann, government professor at the university of Clairemont, explains the benefits the Electoral College has to offer. He claims that the if the Electoral College were to ever be abolished, terrible consequences would follow. If abolished, the two-party system would disappear and a drastic growth in factional parties will arise. Without the two party system, Uhlmann believes that, candidates would not have a center to work toward. He argues that the two-party system “forces the ambitions of presidential candidates into the same constitutional mold that defines and tempers American political life as a whole” (Uhlmann, 2008). This system makes for a more equitable…
It is possible for a new, third political party to succeed in the American political system, however it is difficult. Third party candidates have to get thousands of signatures on petitions to become listed on the ballot. Also, third-party candidates face financial issues because a party must have received at least five percent of the vote in the previous election to qualify for federal funds. Third parties can hope to attain attention for things they feel passionately about. Third parties appeal to people through…
Wilentz argues for political parties because they provide necessary opportunities for radical change. “[P]artisanship, although often manipulated and abused, has also been Americans' most effective vehicle for democratic social and political reform” (Wilentz, 26). However, radical change requires the prerequisite majority in both buildings in Congress. Voters need not decide between two political parties to determine the course of the nation’s future; they should instead choose an independent candidate. This alternative candidate can also implement desired change, reflecting the views of the constituency, without having a political party to modify his or her…
To this day, in our election, we have political parties. Political parties are a group of like-minded people, working together to try and win their election. Not all people would say that political parties are important, but I disagree. Some people would agree with me because without them then our elections would be very hard to keep track of. They would be difficult to track because then it would be everyone for themselves so they can’t group the votes. Most people don’t really say much much about political parties but when they do they usually ask. “Why did political parties develop?” and “Did political parties have any problems?”. These questions could easily be answered with some research.…
The emergence of the second party system in the United States is a dynamic piece of our political history. This term was used as a way of stating the political party systems during the time period of the early/middle 1800’s. Due to separate views and rapidly rising voting interest, this is where the United States ultimately split into the Democratic and Whig Party. Although both parties were still growing at the time, both devised many major philosophies and had very important political figures as their leader.…
Changes in the process for nominating a political party’s candidates, adopted in the 1970s, which emphasize popular participation over elite control, have shifted the emphasis away from the traditional constituencies and increased the importance of connecting with voters of different genders, races, and ethnicities.…