Election

This article is about the political process. For the films of the same name, see Election (movie). For the theological concept, see Predestinationand Unconditional election.

An election is a decision makingprocess whereby people votefor preferred political candidatesor partiesto act as representatives in government. This is the usual mechanism by which a democracyfills offices in the legislature, and sometimes in the executiveand judiciary, and in regionaland local government. This is also typically the case in a wide range of other private and businessorganizations, from clubsto voluntary associationsand corporations.

Electoral reformdescribes the process of introducing fair and democratic electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems. Psephologyis the study of results and other statisticsrelating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results).

Definitions of democratic elections

In political theory, the authorityof the governmentin democracies derives solely from the consent of the governed. The principal mechanism for translating that consent into governmental authority is the holding of free and fair elections.

Image:Hustings20050204 CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg Image:ElezioneBrunate.jpg There is a broad consensus as to what kind of elections can be considered free and fair. Jeane Kirkpatrick, scholar and former United Statesambassadorto 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 citizenswho 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 electoratethat is equally well informed about the various assets and liabilities of each candidate". This was more formally stated in 2000 by Chief JusticeMurray Gleesonof the Australian High Courtas "The democratic and lawful means of securing change, if change be necessary, is an expression of the will of an informed electorate."

The apparently simple requirement of an informed electorate is difficult to achieve in modern electorates with thousands of voters, most of whom have no prospects of knowing candidates other than by information published by third parties. 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.

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

Characteristics of elections

Who can vote

Image:ElezioneMilano.jpg A crucial issue in elections is the question of suffrage—who is allowed to vote—whether the electorate comprises the entire citizenry or some subset of it. The democracy of ancient Athens did not allow women, children, foreigners and slaves to vote—thus disenfranchising the majority of the population. Over the last few centuries since elections began to be held there has been a long struggle to expand the franchise to excluded groups.

Originally in the U.S., for example, only white male property holders enjoyed the right to elect and be elected when the Constitutionwas signed in 1787. The property qualification disappeared by the early 19th century, and women won the right to vote in 1920. African Americans, however, did not enjoy full voting rights in the southern United States until the civil rights movementof the 1960s. And finally, in 1971, younger citizens were given the right to vote when the United States lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. In Canada First Nationswere long denied the vote. The first country in the world to allow women to vote was New Zealand, and the second was Finland.

There are still many restrictions in place. Many countries do not allow those judged mentally incapable to vote, and some deny the vote to serving prisonersas well. In some cases, such as some U.S. states, convicted felonsare also barred from voting upon release. Children are not permitted to vote in any country; however, the minimum voting age varies.

In some countries, voting is compulsory. If an eligible voter does not attend a polling place, they may be subject to punitive measures such as a small fine.

Who is voted for

In some states far more positions are filled through election than others.

In all democracies it is often the case that some important positions are not filled through elections. Those institutions that were designed to not be too closely swayed by public opinion are often not elected. For instance judges are usually appointed for life, or until a specific age, to insulate them against popular pressure and help ensure their impartiality. This is often seen as an integral part of the separation of powers.

However, there are some counterexamples. In the United States some judges are elected, and in ancient Athens military generals were elected.

Also frequent is the erecting of an intermediate tier of electorsbetween the people and the elected figure. For example, the President of the United Statesis not elected directly by the people but by the U.S. Electoral College. But since it is known who these people will vote for, the effect is the same as a direct election. Also, U.S. Senatorswere originally chosen by the state legislatures. And in the Westminster Systemthe Prime Minister, who holds the most power, is formally chosen by the head of stateand in reality by the legislature or by their party.

Types of election

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(pl 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 systemswhich 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 systemsand ballottypes are used. Voting systems then determine the result on the basis of the tally. Most systems can be categorized as either proportionalor majoritarian. Among the former are party-list proportional representationand 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 votingor a Condorcet method.

While openness and accountabilityare 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 ballotis 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 mandateto continue in office. For that reason most democratic constitutions provide that elections are held at fixed regular intervals. In most states elections are held between every three and six years. There are exceptions to this; the U.S. House of Representivesstands for election every two years, while the President of Irelandholds a largely ceremonial position for seven years.

Some nations have pre-determined and fixed election dates (e.g., the U.S.). This has 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.

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 facade of popular consent and support.

Dictatorships, such as the former Soviet Union, have been known to hold such show elections. 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-riggingto 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.

Bias and limited options

See also: Criticisms of electoralism.

Similar to the false diversity elections are those in which candidates are limited by undemocratic forces and biases. The Iranian form of government is an example of this. In the 2004 Iranian parliamentary electionsalmost all of the reformist candidates were ruled unfit by the Guardian Councilof religious leaders. According to the Iranian constitutionthis was fully within the Council's constitutional rights, and designed to prevent enemies of the Islamic Revolutionfrom coming to power. Even in the USA, socialistVictor L. Bergerwas twice denied a seat in the House of Representativesin 1919 because of his anti-warviews.

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 observersare 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 Russianpresident 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.

Some allege that beyond the examples given here, there are more subtle and systemic forms of 'false-diversity' in elections which are not generally recognised. Noam Chomskyand other "progressives" argue that in the West, and especially the U.S., powerful corporate interests behind the mediaact as a filter that, statistically, only lets preordained views be heard by the public and excludes third partiesand 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 the U.S. has what is in practice a one-party political system.

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 Greeceto 18th and 19th century France(see Second Empireunder Napoleon III), and perhaps most famously in 20th century Germany, when the Nazisinitially came to power by democratic means (albeit by pluralityvote). Throughout most of the developing world today democracies remain unstable, often collapsing to military coupsor other forms of dictatorship. Thinkers such as Aristotleand many others long believed democracy to be inherently unstable and to always quickly collapse.

Most democracies have some form of separation of powersso that even if a tyrantis elected the constitutionwould still have to be obeyed, in theory at least. Of course, an elected government can change the constitution, but this can be made difficult by, in some cases, requiring a 2/3 majority in two consecutive elected governments—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 postelectoral system makes it hard for new parties to quickly gain power. In states using proportional representationsystems, there is a determined proportion of the popular vote that must be won before a party can be admitted to parliament. This election thresholdmay 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

Further information: List of election results, and [[{{{2|}}}]], and [[{{{3|}}}]], and [[{{{4|}}}]], and [[{{{5|}}}]], and [[{{{6|}}}]], and [[{{{7|}}}]], and [[{{{8|}}}]], and [[{{{9|}}}]]

See also

• List of politics-related topics

• Bipartidism
• Demarchy— "Democracy without Elections"
• Election law
• Electoral fraud
• Criticisms of electoralism
• Electoral Reform
• Foreign interference with elections in democratic countries
• Garrat Elections
• Gerontocracy
• Meritocracy
• Pluralism
• Political campaigning
• Political science
• Polling station
• Sortition
• Allotment
• Appointment
• Voter turnout
• Close elections

External links

• Angus Reid Consultants: Election Tracker
• CNN.com World News: Election Watch
• Electionworld.org
• IDEA's Table of Electoral Systems Worldwidebg:??????

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election Wikipedia article Election.