1. The context of American elections and political parties

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Sandy Maisel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Federal System ◽  
College System ◽  
American Elections ◽  
Democracy In America

‘The context of American elections and political parties’ explains the framework under which elections are run in the United States. This is laid out in the Constitution, which outlines the basic tenets of democracy in America. The most important aspects of that framework are the separation of powers, with a single executive separate from and elected separately from the legislature, and the federal system with residual powers left to the states. The electoral college system, unique to the United States, is a result of the initial decisions made at the time of the framing of the Constitution.

1. The context of American elections and political parties

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Sandy Maisel
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Federal System ◽  
College System ◽  
The Us ◽  
American Elections ◽  
Democracy In America

‘The context of American elections and political parties’ explains the framework under which elections are run in the US. This is laid out in the Constitution which outlines the basic tenets of democracy in America. The most important aspects of that framework are the separation of powers, with a single executive separate from and elected separately from the legislature, and the federal system with residual powers left to the states. The electoral college system, unique to the US, is a result of the initial decisions made at the time of the framing of the Constitution.

Mandates and Policy Outputs: U.S. Party Platforms and Federal Expenditures

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Budge ◽  
Richard I. Hofferbert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Interests ◽  
Subject Categories ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Federal Expenditure ◽  
The U.S

Political parties in the United States are usually regarded as too weak and decentralized, too much the prey of office-seeking politicians and special interests, to function effectively as programmatic., policy-effecting agents within the separation of powers. This has been taken as a serious flaw in the U.S. version of representative democracy, prompting cycles of proposed reform; criticisms of the existing set-up as a capitalistic sham; or alternative justifications of the system as pluralist rather than strictly party democracy. Our research challenges these assumptions by demonstrating the existence of strong links between postwar (1948–1985) election platforms and governmental outputs. Platforms' sentences, coded into one of 54 subject categories, are used as indicators of programmatic emphases and are related to corresponding federal expenditure shares. Resulting regression models demonstrate the full applicability of party mandate theory to the United States, and they operationalize its U.S. variants concretely.

Reform of the Electoral System

1952 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-407
Author(s):  
Ruth C. Silva
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
College System

Current proposals for reform of the electoral college system are embodied in three plans which appear to be designed to enable the “conservatives” to elect a President of the United States. Since 1932, the present electoral college system has compelled both parties to nominate presidential candidates who advocate policies devised to win the votes of conscious ethnic, religious, and economic groups in metropolitan centers, where these minorities hold a balance of power in populous states controlling large blocs of electoral votes. Consequently, all recent presidential candidates have supported social security, collective bargaining, and civil rights legislation. An inspection of congressional roll calls discloses the rather obvious fact that a number of Republicans and southern Democrats hardly approve of these and other so-called Fair Deal measures.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-220
Author(s):  
George C. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
College System ◽  
Final Round

This chapter summarizes the findings of the previous chapters and concludes that electoral colleges violate political equality. It argues that the electoral college system is obsolete. The United States is now the only country that elects a politically powerful president via an electoral college and the only one in which a candidate can become president without having obtained the highest number of votes in the sole or final round of popular voting. The chapter indicates that recent reforms in democratic countries have replaced indirect procedures with direct popular voting. In this light, the chapter offers alternatives to the electoral college and considers some prospects for change.

scholarly journals Multilayered Democracy in Papua: A Comparison of “Noken” System and Electoral College System in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Ahsan Yunus
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
College System ◽  
The Social ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Constitutional Pluralism

The elucidation of understanding popular sovereignty through the implementation of democratic principles when applied to a pluralistic Indonesian society requires a comprehensive study. This study is a normative-legal research by using statute, case, and conceptual approaches. This paper provides information on the latest trend in research. The results show that the characteristics of the general election by Noken system are in line with the Electoral College system to presidential elections in the United States, especially in the Noken system as represented by the chieftain (election by the big man). The Noken system is the result of the relations of political culture and the strengthening of local democracy. Hence, the constitutionality of Noken system is a translation of the constitution that pays attention to the social diversity that lives in society. Not only in the context of general elections, but in every aspect of national and State life, as more attention is given to the constitution of social diversity in society (constitutional pluralism).

scholarly journals An Attack on the Separation of Powers? Strategic Climate Litigation in the Eyes of U.S. Judges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8335
Author(s):  
Jasmina Nedevska
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Research Plan

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool as societies steer towards sustainable development. Although the litigation mainly takes place in domestic courts, the implications can be seen as global as specific climate rulings influence courts across national borders. However, while the phenomenon of judicialization is well-known in the social sciences, relatively few have studied issues of legitimacy that arise as climate politics move into courts. A comparatively large part of climate cases have appeared in the United States. This article presents a research plan for a study of judges’ opinions and dissents in the United States, regarding the justiciability of strategic climate cases. The purpose is to empirically study how judges navigate a perceived normative conflict—between the litigation and an overarching ideal of separation of powers—in a system marked by checks and balances.

The 1972 Elections

1973 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
H. G. Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
American Elections ◽  
To Come

Elections satisfy both the practical and the theoretical requirements of classical democratic theory if they answer one question only: Who shall rule? Judged by this test the American elections of 7 November 1972 returned as clear and unequivocal an answer as the United States Constitution permits – crystal-clear as to individuals, equivocal as to parties and political forces. But the student of politics and society cannot resist treating elections as data-gathering devices on a wide range of other questions, on the state of the public mind, on the relative potency of pressure groups, on the internal health of the political parties, and, of course, on the shape of things to come. In this ancillary role American elections, despite the generous wealth of statistical material which they throw up – so much more detailed and categorized (though often less precise) than our own – Suffer in most years from one severe limitation, a limitation which in 1972 was particularly conspicuous; they do not engage the interest of more than a moderate percentage of the American citizenry. In 1972 that percentage was as low as 55 per cent, i.e. out of an estimated eligible population of 139,642,000 only 77,000,000 went to the polls. Since this circumscribes the conclusions which can be drawn from the results themselves, as well as constituting a phenomenon of considerable intrinsic interest, it seems worthwhile to begin any examination of the 1972 elections by an analysis not of the votes counted but of those which were never cast.

The Role of Congress in the Development of a Responsible American Policy Toward Angola

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Bender
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
American Policy

In addition to our discussions today of the current situation in Angola, I would like to direct my remarks to the question of what role, if any, the United States should play with regard to Angola, and concretely, how the Congress can assist in the formulation and execution of a responsible American policy toward Angola. We have all learned a number of important lessons from recent revelations about the conduct of American policy in Southeast Asia, about Government coverups such as Watergate, corporate bribery of foreign officials and political parties, and about the illegal and unacceptable activities of the CIA as described in the Rockefeller Commission report and elsewhere. Certainly we can apply some of these lessons to our present consideration of U.S. policy toward Angola; hopefully we will learn the vital facts and ask the necessary questions now, rather than, as has too often been the case, after the fact.

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