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An election is a decision making process where a population chooses an
individual to hold official offices. This is the usual mechanism by which modern
democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and
judiciary, and for 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. However, as Montesquieu points out in
Book II, Chapter 2 of "The Spirit of Laws," in the case of elections in either a
republic or a democracy, voters alternate between being the rulers of the
country as well as being the subjects of the government, with the act of voting
being the sovereign (or ruling) capacity, in which the people act as "masters"
selecting their government "servants." Rather, the unique characteristics of
democracies and republics is the recognition that the only legitimate source of
power for government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is the
consent of the governed—the people themselves.
The universal acceptance of elections as a tool for selecting representatives
in modern democracies is in 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, where officeholders are chosen by lot.
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).
A ballot box
Part of the Politics series
Allotment
By-election
Electoral fraud
Show election
Fixed-term election
General election
Indirect election
Local election
Referendum
Terminology:
Apportionment
Gerrymandering
Redistricting
Secret ballot
Suffrage
Subseries of Elections:
Political Party
Voting
Voting systems
Relevant lists:
Elections by country
Results by country
Electoral calendar
Politics Portal
Definitions of the democratic elections
In normative political philosophy, 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 High Court of
Australia as "The democratic and lawful means of securing change, if change be
necessary, is an expression of the will of an informed electorate."
A poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing party
listsWhile the requirement of free and fair election is easily observable, 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.
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 governor but was generally considered to be a free and open society due
to its strong legal institutions.
Characteristics of elections
Who can vote
Further information: Suffrage
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.
Campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004In 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.
Who is elected
A pre-election hustings at the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency,
England.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 referendums or referenda) 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;
these methods are also gaining popularity for lesser elections in some countries
where more important elections still use more traditional counting methods.
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, they tend to greatly lengthen campaigns, and make
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 for close to its full term, and choose an election date which it
calculates to be in its best interests (unless something special happens, such
as a motion of no-confidence). This calculation depends on a number of
variables, such as its performance in opinion polls and the size of its
majority.
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 Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power, 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-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 recognized 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.
Biased system
Further information: 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 one
example of elections among limited options.[1] 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.[2] 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 and the absence of electoral fraud.
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[citation needed]. For this reason,
many countries ensure equal air time to election ads from all sizable parties
and have systems that help pay for election advertising or, conversely, limit
the possibilities to advertise, to prevent rich parties or candidates from
outstripping their opponents.
Bibliography
Abizadeh, Arash. 2005. "Democratic Elections without Campaigns? Normative
Foundations of National Baha'i Elections." World Order 37.1: 7-49.
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1963. Social Choice and Individual Values. 2nd ed. New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press.
Benoit, Jean-Pierre and Lewis A. Kornhauser. 1994. "Social Choice in a
Representative Democracy." American Political Science Review 88.1: 185-192.
Corrado Maria, Daclon. 2004. US elections and war on terrorism – Interview with
professor Massimo Teodori Analisi Difesa, n. 50
Farquharson, Robin. 1969. A Theory of Voting. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
Mueller, Dennis C. 1996. Constitutional Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Riker, William. 1980. Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the
Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland Press.
Ware, Alan. 1987. Citizens, Parties and the State. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
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