Electoral Reform - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Electoral Reform

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Reforms that aim to improve turnout. Groups that campaign for electoral reform ... Dirty tricks' generally involve leaking damaging information to the media. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Electoral Reform


1
Electoral Reform
Negative Campaigning, Postal Voting, Compulsory
Voting, Adopt PR?
  • Monday 21st April
  • Amilia Rappak

2
Overview
  • Electoral reform in a 21st century context
  • Areas where reforms have an impact
  • Case study low voter turnout and the reforms
    suggested to target this
  • Compulsory Voting, Postal Voting
  • Conclusion do reforms work?

3
Some questions about electoral reform
  • Do reforms always only target one area of
    society?
  • Can you think of any reforms that will affect
    society as a whole?

4
Electoral Reform in the 21st Century
  • We benefit from past reforms
  • 19th Century
  • Property restrictions are gone
  • The wealthy cannot buy elections
  • 20th Century
  • Women get the vote
  • But what about today?

5
Electoral ReformWhy?
  • Engage more people in the political process
  • Low turnout is bad for democracy
  • Include minority groups
  • Make elections fairer
  • True representation of political attitudes
  • Campaign financing
  • PR?

6
Electoral ReformWhy?
  • Make voting easier
  • vote counting procedures,
  • ballot design, etc
  • the average voter can understand the system
  • Transparency
  • Equalise competition
  • constituency borders
  • incumbents advantages

7
Electoral ReformHow?
  • Legal
  • Amend the constitution
  • Change the legal framework
  • Administrative
  • Make the electoral system more efficient
  • Political
  • Change the way politicians plan to win elections

8
Electoral ReformWho wants it?
  • Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs)
  • Agencies, lobbying and pressure groups
  • Eg. The UK Electoral Commission
  • The UK's electoral processes are rooted in
    nineteenth-century practices and legislation and
    need fundamental reform in order to safeguard
    public confidence (EC. Dec 2007)
  • UK examples Electoral Reform Society, Make Votes
    Count Coalition, Fairshare, Aceproject.Org, etc.

9
Where to Reform?
  • Election management
  • Registration
  • Constituency boundaries
  • Election technology
  • Registration systems
  • Voting systems
  • Improve efficiency
  • Preserve integrity

10
What can be reformed?
  • Reforms to make voting easier (vote counting
    procedures, ballot design, etc)
  • Reforms to make elections fairer
  • Reforms to equalise competition, giving
    candidates an equal chance
  • Reforms that aim to improve turnout

11
Groups that campaign for electoral reform in the
UK
  • Electoral Reform Society (who campaign for fairer
    voting systems)
  • Fairshare (who campaign for the introduction of
    the Single Transferable Vote system in Scotland)
  • Make My Vote Count

12
Reforms that have been implemented or proposed
  • Implementation of Electoral Management Bodies
    the body responsible for electoral management
  • Labours proposal to shift the electoral system
    to Alternative Vote in the UK
  • Conservatives desire to alter the constituency
    boundaries

13
(No Transcript)
14
Low turnout
  • pB D gt C
  • p ? the probability that an individuals vote
    will affect the outcome of an election.
  • B ? the perceived benefit of that persons
    favoured political party or candidate being
    elected.
  • D ? originally this stood for democracy or civic
    duty, but today it represents any social or
    personal gratification an individual gets from
    voting.
  • C ? the time, effort and financial cost involved
    in voting.

15
Verba et al.s most cited reasons for political
inactivity
  • lack of time (39),
  • a belief that self and family came before
    politics (34),
  • that politics had nothing to do with the
    important aspects of the respondents life (20),
  • that politics cant help with my personal or
    family problems (17),
  • as an individual I dont feel I can have an
    impact (15) and
  • for what I would get out of it, politics is not
    worth what I would have to put into it (14).

16
Trends of Decreasing Turnout
17
Negative Campaigning
  • Dirty tricks generally involve leaking
    damaging information to the media. Also, feeding
    an opponents team false information in the hope
    that they will use it and embarrass themselves.
  • Push polls are attacks disguised as telephone
    polls members of the opposing party are kept in
    the dark about this happening, making these
    tactics almost invisible and improvable.

18
  • Most open and often most effective technique of
    negative campaigning is running advertisements
    attacking an opponents personality, record or
    opinion.

19
Other methods used to tackle low turnout
  • Compulsory Voting
  • Has kept turnout consistently high in countries
    such as Australia (94.5) and Belgium (93) BUT
    holds the problem of donkey voting and the
    question is it democratic to force people to
    vote?
  • Postal Voting
  • Cuts the cost and inconvenience of elections
    BUT do they actually encourage people to vote who
    would not have previously done so?
  • Proportional Representation
  • Makes the governing bodies more representative
    and leads to fewer wasted votes BUT can lead to
    unstable coalitions whose formation the voter has
    no say in.

20
Questions
  • How can reformists get around the fact that
    reforms need to be implemented by the MPs who
    were put in power by the system under scrutiny?
  • Is it possible to develop reforms that would
    target society as a whole, rather than just one
    section of it?
  • Should people be forced to engage in politics?
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