Which party system is particularly useful for a democratic state.
Answers
Answer:
1
Which party system is particularly useful for a democratic state?
Immersive viewing with LG OLED TV powered by self-lit pixels.
Sam Qwato
Answered April 4, 2018
Q. Which party system is particularly useful for a democratic state?
(1) ‘Party system’ has different meanings depending on the context. In this answer, we assume it means
First-past-the-post voting system (FPTP) → Two-party system (2PS), e.g. US, UK
or
Proportional representation voting system (PR) → Multi-party system (MPS), e.g. many Western European countries.
(2) There are pros and cons to FPTP/2PS versus PR/MPS.
(3) Simplistically, in PR/MPS geometry, if a party wins, say, 15% of the national popular vote, it should roughly win 15% of the legislature (parliament) seats.
As such, PR/MPS is generally considered ‘more democratic’ of the two. There is more direct transmission of 1-person-1-vote electoral power to governance power.
FPTP/2PS tends to complicate, if not distort, the power transmission. If a party wins barely by just so, say, 50.01%, it wins, even though it doesn’t have the support of effectively half of the voters.
(4) Voting and ‘party system’ relate to Political Philosophy ideas of
suffrage
mandate (related to voter turnout rate)
legitimacy
representation
social contract.
The elected politician has the mandate of the voters, and thus the constitutional legitimacy, to represent the people, to govern, in the broad spirit of the social contract.