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Election

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

   An election is a decision making process where people choose people to
   hold official offices. This is the usual mechanism by which modern
   democracy fills offices in the legislature, and sometimes in the
   executive and judiciary, and in regional and local government. This is
   also typically the case in a wide range of other private and business
   organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

   The universal acceptance of elections as a tool for selecting
   representatives in modern democracies is in sharp contrast with the
   practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where elections
   were considered an oligarchic institution and where most political
   offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment.

   Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral
   systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or
   effectiveness of existing systems. Psephology is the study of results
   and other statistics relating to elections (especially with a view to
   predicting future results).

   Elections
   Part of the Politics series
     * Allotment
     * By-election
     * Electoral fraud

          Show election

     * Fixed-term election
     * General election
     * Indirect election
     * Local election
     * Referendum

   Terminology:
     * Gerrymandering
     * Redistricting
     * Secret ballot
     * Suffrage

   Subseries of Elections:
     * Political Party
     * Voting
     * Voting systems

   Relevant lists:
     * Elections by country
     * Elections by date

   Politics Portal

Definitions of the democratic elections

   A poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing
   party lists
   A poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing
   party lists

   In political theory, the authority of the government in democracies
   derives solely from the consent of the governed. The principal
   mechanism for translating that consent into governmental authority is
   the holding of elections. It is agreed, that elections should be free
   and fair.

   There is a broad consensus as to what kind of elections can be
   considered free and fair. Jeane Kirkpatrick, scholar and former United
   States ambassador to the United Nations, has offered this definition:
   "Democratic elections are not merely symbolic....They are competitive,
   periodic, inclusive, definitive elections in which the chief
   decision-makers in a government are selected by citizens who enjoy
   broad freedom to criticize government, to publish their criticism and
   to present alternatives."

   The Democracy Watch (International) website, further defines fair
   democratic elections as, "Elections in which great care is taken to
   prevent any explicit or hidden structural bias towards any one
   candidate, aside from those beneficial biases that naturally result
   from an electorate that is equally well informed about the various
   assets and liabilities of each candidate". This was more formally
   stated in 2000 by Chief Justice Murray Gleeson of the Australian High
   Court as "The democratic and lawful means of securing change, if change
   be necessary, is an expression of the will of an informed electorate."

   While the requirement of free and fair election is easily obeservable,
   the requirement of an informed electorate is difficult to achieve. Only
   a small part of the electorate will be able to know the candidates on a
   personal level and thus the information of the electorate will be
   incomplete. The electorate has to rely on third party information and
   official programs of the respective candidates. The latter is
   especially unreliable, since there is only a moral but no legislative
   obligations to keep them in modern democracies. The party with the most
   immediate interest in having structural biases is the government
   conducting the election. One possible result is the 'show' elections
   described below.
   A pre-election hustings at the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency,
   England.
   A pre-election hustings at the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency,
   England.

   Some other scholars argue that elections are at most secondary to a
   functioning democracy. They argue that the rule of law is more
   important. An example would be pre-unification Hong Kong, which was
   ruled by an unelected British administrator but was generally
   considered to be a free and open society due to its strong legal
   institutions.

Characteristics of elections

Who can vote

   Campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004
   Campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004

   The question of who may vote is a central issue in elections. The
   electorate does not generally include the entire population; for
   example, many countries prohibit those judged mentally incompetent from
   voting, and all jurisdictions require a minimum age for voting.

   Historically, many other groups of people have also been excluded from
   voting. For instance, the democracy of ancient Athens did not allow
   women, foreigners, or slaves to vote, and the original United States
   Constitution left the topic of suffrage to the states; usually only
   white male property owners were able to vote. Much of the history of
   elections involves the effort to promote suffrage for excluded groups.
   The women's suffrage movement gave women in many countries the right to
   vote, and securing the right to vote freely was a major goal of the
   American civil rights movement. Extending the right to vote to other
   groups which remain excluded in some places (such as convicted felons,
   members of certain minorities, and the economically disadvantaged)
   continues to be a significant goal of voting rights advocates.

   Suffrage is typically only for citizens of the country. Further limits
   may be imposed: for example, in Kuwait, only people who have been
   citizens since 1920 or their descendants are allowed to vote, a
   condition that the majority of residents do not fulfill. However, in
   the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in
   the municipality and is a EU citizen; the nationality of the country of
   residence is not required.

   In some countries, voting is required by law; if an eligible voter does
   not cast a vote, he or she may be subject to punitive measures such as
   a small fine.

Who can be eligible to hold an office

   Normally there is a citizenship requirement, an age requirement, a
   residency requirement, and, perhaps, a non- felon requirement. Before
   the Second World War, in most countries, women were not eligible for
   public office.

Nomination

   Non-partisan systems tend to differ from partisan systems as concerns
   nominations. In a direct democracy, one type of non-partisan democracy,
   any eligible person can be nominated. In some non-partisan
   representative systems (e.g., administrative elections of the Bahá'í
   Faith), no nominations (or campaigning, electioneering, etc.) take
   place at all, with voters free to choose any person at the time of
   voting--with some possible exceptions such as through a minimum age
   requirement--in the jurisdiction. In such cases, it is not required (or
   even possible) that the members of the electorate be familiar with all
   of the eligible persons, though such systems may involve indirect
   elections at larger geographic levels to ensure that some first-hand
   familiarity among potential electees can exist at these levels (i.e.,
   among the elected delegates).

   As far as partisan systems, in some countries, only members of a
   particular political party can be nominated. Or, an eligible person can
   be nominated through a petition; thus allowing him or her to be listed
   on a ballot. In the United States, for example, typically party
   candidates are required to have fewer signatures on petitions than
   non-party candidates.

Who is elected

   The government positions for which elections are held vary depending on
   the locale. In a representative democracy, such as the United States,
   some positions are not filled through elections, especially those which
   are seen as requiring a certain competency or excellence. For example,
   judges are usually appointed rather than elected to help protect their
   impartiality. There are exceptions to this practice, however; some
   judges in the United States are elected, and in ancient Athens military
   generals were elected.

   In some cases, as for example, in soviet democracy -- there may exist
   an intermediate tier of electors between constituents and the elected
   figure. However, in most representative democracies, this level of
   indirection usually is nothing more than a formality. For example, the
   President of the United States is elected by the Electoral College, and
   in the Westminster System, the Prime Minister is formally chosen by the
   head of state (and in reality by the legislature or by their party).

Types of elections

   In most democratic political systems, there are a range of different
   types of election, corresponding to different layers of public
   governance or geographical jurisdiction. Some common types of election
   are:
     * Presidential election
     * General election
     * Primary election
     * By-election
     * Local election
     * Co-option

   A referendum (plural referenda or referendums) is a democratic tool
   related to elections in which the electorate votes for or against a
   specific proposal, law or policy, rather than for a general policy or a
   particular candidate or party. Referendums may be added to an election
   ballot or held separately and may be either binding or consultative,
   usually depending on the constitution. Referendums are usually called
   by governments via the legislature, however many democracies allow
   citizens to petition for referendums directly, called initiatives.

   Referendums are particularly prevalent and important in direct
   democracies, such as Switzerland. The basic Swiss system, however,
   still works with representatives. In the most direct form of democracy,
   anyone can vote about anything. This is closely related to referendums
   and may take the form of consensus decision-making. Reminiscent of the
   ancient Greek system, anyone may discuss a particular subject until a
   consensus is reached. The consensus requirement means that discussions
   can go on for a very long time. The result will be that only those who
   are genuinely interested will participate in the discussion and
   therefore the vote. In this system there need not be an age limit
   because children will usually become bored. This system is however only
   feasible when implemented on a very small scale.

Electoral systems

   Electoral systems refer to the detailed constitutional arrangements and
   voting systems which convert the vote into a determination of which
   individuals and political parties are elected to positions of power.

   The first step is to tally the votes, for which various different vote
   counting systems and ballot types are used. Voting systems then
   determine the result on the basis of the tally. Most systems can be
   categorized as either proportional or majoritarian. Among the former
   are party-list proportional representation and additional member
   system. Among the latter are First Past the Post (FPP) (relative
   majority) and absolute majority. Many countries have growing electoral
   reform movements, which advocate systems such as approval voting,
   single transferable vote, instant runoff voting or a Condorcet method.

   While openness and accountability are usually considered cornerstones
   of a democratic system, the act of casting a vote and the content of a
   voter's ballot are usually an important exception. The secret ballot is
   a relatively modern development, but it is now considered crucial in
   most free and fair elections, as it limits the effectiveness of
   intimidation.

Scheduling

   The nature of democracy is that elected officials are accountable to
   the people, and they must return to the voters at prescribed intervals
   to seek their mandate to continue in office. For that reason most
   democratic constitutions provide that elections are held at fixed
   regular intervals. In the United States, elections are held between
   every three and six years in most states, with exceptions such as the
   U.S. House of Representatives, which stands for election every two
   years. There is a variety of schedules, for example presidents: the
   President of Ireland is elected every seven years, the President of
   Finland every six years, the President of France every five years, the
   President of Russia and President of United States every four years.

   Pre-determined or fixed election dates have the advantage of fairness
   and predictability. However, it tends to greatly lengthen campaigns,
   and makes dissolving the legislature (parliamentary system) more
   problematic if the date should happen to fall at time when dissolution
   is inconvenient (e.g. when war breaks out). Other states (e.g., the
   United Kingdom) only set maximum time in office, and the executive
   decides exactly when within that limit it will actually go to the
   polls. In practice, this means the government will remain in power full
   term unless something special happens, such as a motion of
   no-confidence.

   Elections are usually held on one day. There are also advance polls and
   absentee voting, which have a more flexible schedule. In Europe, a
   substantial proportion of votes are cast in advance voting.

Election campaigns

   When elections are called, politicians and their supporters attempt to
   influence policy by competing directly for the votes of constituents in
   what are called campaigns. Supporters for a campaign can be either
   formally organized or loosely affiliated, and frequently utilize
   campaign advertising.

Difficulties with elections

Show elections

   While all modern democracies hold regular elections, the converse is
   not true—not all elections are held by true democracies. Some
   governments employ other 'behind-the-scenes' means of candidate
   selection but organise a sham process that appears to be a genuine
   electoral contest, in order to present the façade of popular consent
   and support.

   Dictatorships, such as the US-backed Latin american dictatorships or
   elections from the time when Saddam Hussein was in power, have been
   known to hold such show elections (see Operation Condor). In the
   'single candidate' type of show-election, there may only be one
   candidate for any one given position, with no alternative choices for
   voters beyond voting yes or no to this candidate. In the 'fixed vote'
   type of show-election such elections may offer several candidates for
   each office. In both cases, the government uses intimidation or
   vote-rigging to ensure a high yes vote or that only the
   government-approved candidates are chosen.

   Another model is the 'false diversity' type of show-election in which
   there may be several choices, all of which support the status quo. In
   theory, 'false diversity' elections would be recognised by a truly
   informed electorate but as noted above this may be impossible, for
   example where a government conducting elections also controls the media
   by which most voters are informed. Examples of this are given below.

Biased system

   Similar to the false diversity elections are those in which candidates
   are limited by undemocratic forces and biases. The Iranian form of
   government is one example of elections among limited options. In the
   2004 Iranian parliamentary elections almost all of the reformist
   candidates were ruled unfit by the Guardian Council of religious
   leaders. According to the Iranian constitution this was fully within
   the Council's constitutional rights, and designed to prevent enemies of
   the Islamic Revolution from coming to power.

   Simply permitting the opposition access to the ballot is not enough. In
   order for democratic elections to be fair and competitive, opposition
   parties and candidates must enjoy the rights to freedom of speech,
   assembly, and movement as necessary to voice their criticisms of the
   government openly and to bring alternative policies and candidates to
   the voters. In states where these freedoms are not granted or where
   opposition party politicians are harassed and their events disrupted,
   elections may not reflect the legitimate views of the populace. A
   current example of such a state is Zimbabwe. In states with fragile
   democracies where there has been a history of political violence or
   blatantly unfair elections, international election observers are often
   called in by external bodies like the United Nations, and protected by
   foreign forces, to guarantee fairness.

   In addition, elections in which opposition candidates are not given
   access to radio, newspaper and television coverage are also likely to
   be biased. An example of this kind of structural bias was the 2004
   re-election of Russian president Vladimir Putin, in which the state
   controlled media consistently supported his election run, consistently
   condemned his opponents, provided virtually unlimited free advertising
   to Putin's campaign, and barred attempts by his opponents to run
   campaign advertisements. For this reason, many countries ensure equal
   air time to election ads from all sizeable parties and have systems
   that help pay for election advertising or, conversely, limit the
   possibilities to advertise, to prevent rich parties or candidates from
   oustripping their opponents.

Voter frustration and apathy

   Some allege that beyond the examples given here, there can also be
   subtle and systemic forms of 'false-diversity' in elections. Critics on
   both the left and right, such as Noam Chomsky and Lou Dobbs argue that
   in the West, and especially the United States, powerful corporate
   interests behind the media act as a filter that, statistically, only
   lets "preordained" views be heard by the public and excludes third
   parties and radical, alternative viewpoints. They point out that in the
   U.S., the two big political parties are both sponsored by essentially
   the same large corporations (such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola,
   McDonnell-Douglas, ...), thereby representing the interests of a tiny
   minority of citizens (the richest few percent) and no political parties
   representing the vast majority of relatively poor citizens have any
   realistic chance of having their political platforms presented to the
   public through the corporate controlled media. In this sense, they
   argue that Western nations often have what is, in practice, a one-party
   political system.

   Though the details of this analysis are often disputed, similar forms
   of voter apathy are often credited with helping hurt democracy. If
   voters feel that elected politicians are not actively serving their
   interests, but rather the interests of the political establishment,
   they may be inclined not to vote at all. In many western nations voter
   turnout hovers around 55% or so, only a narrow majority of the adult
   population. As this is generally a decline from the historic standard,
   sociologists usually credit disillusion with electoral choices as a
   leading cause of voter disinterest.

Corruption of democracies

   The very openness of a democracy means that in many states it is
   possible for voters to vote to get rid of democracy itself.

   Democracies have failed many times in history from ancient Greece to
   18th and 19th century France (see Second Empire under Napoleon III),
   and perhaps most famously in 20th century Germany, when the Nazis
   initially came to power by democratic means (albeit by plurality vote)
   using the Enabling act of 1933. Throughout most of the developing world
   today democracies remain unstable, often collapsing to military coups
   or other forms of dictatorship. Thinkers such as Aristotle and many
   others long believed democracy to be inherently unstable and to always
   quickly collapse.

   Most democracies have some form of separation of powers mandated by the
   constitution. This is a device limiting the power of any specific
   elected body with the aim of preventing elected representatives from
   changing some of the characteristics of the government. Changing the
   constitution is made difficult in various ways, such as by requiring a
   ⅔ majority in two consecutive elected governments for the change to
   take effect—the actual requirements vary by each constitutional system.

   To limit this danger the system used in many states indirectly places
   limits on how easily new parties can form. The first past the post
   electoral system makes it hard for new parties to quickly gain power.
   In states using proportional representation systems, there is usually
   an election threshold, a determined proportion of the popular vote that
   must be won before a party can be admitted to parliament. This may be
   simply the amount of votes required to get one seat, such as in the
   Netherlands, but it may also be set higher, to prevent small parties
   from getting a seat in government.

Elections around the world

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