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Anindirect election orhierarchical voting,[1] is anelection in which voters do notchoose directly amongcandidates or parties for an office, but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. Thiselectoral system is one of the oldest forms of elections and is used by many countries forheads of state (such aspresidents),heads of government (such asprime ministers), and/orupper houses. It is also used for somesupranational legislatures. The body that controls the federalexecutive branch (such as acabinet) is in many countries elected indirectly by thehead of government with exception of thedirectorial system. Upper houses, especially in federal republics, are often indirectly elected, either by the correspondinglower house or cabinet.
Positions that are indirectly elected may be chosen by a permanent body (such as aparliament) or by a special body convened solely for that purpose (such as anelectoral college). An election can be partially indirect, for example in the case ofindirect single transferable voting, where only eliminated candidates select other candidates to transfer their vote share to. Similarly, supranational legislatures can be indirectly elected by constituent countries' legislatures orexecutive governments.
A head of state is the official leader and representative of a country.[2] The head of state position can vary from ceremonialfigurehead with limited power to powerful leader depending on the government structure and historical legacy of the country.[3] For instance, in some cases heads of state inherit the position through amonarchy whereas others are indirectly or directly elected such as presidents.[4] Several examples are included below.
ThePresident of the United States is elected indirectly. In aUS presidential election, eligible members of the public vote for theelectors of anElectoral College, who have previously pledged publicly to support a particular presidential candidate.[5] When the Electoral College sits, soon after the election, it formally elects the candidate that has won a majority of the members of the Electoral College. Members of the federal cabinet, including the vice president, are in practice nominated by the president, and are thus elected indirectly.[6] The Electoral College is a controversial issue in U.S. politics, especially following presidential elections when voting is polarized geographically in such a way that the electoral collegeelects a candidate who did not win an absolute majority of the popular vote.[7] TheNational Popular Vote Interstate Compact, if enacted, would effectively replace the indirect election via the Electoral College with ade factoplurality-based direct election.[8]
TheConstitution of the People's Republic of China specifies a system of indirect democracy.[9] TheNational People's Congress elects thepresident, also known as the state chairman, who serves asstate representative.[10] The power of the presidency is largely ceremonial and has no real power in China'spolitical system, the vast majority of power stems from the president's position asGeneral Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party andcommander-in-chief of themilitary.[11]
The president of theEuropean Commission is nominated by theEuropean Council and confirmed or denied by the directly electedEuropean Parliament (seeElections to the European Parliament).[12]
Republics withparliamentary systems usually elect theirhead of state indirectly (e.g.Germany,Italy,Estonia,Latvia,Malta,Hungary,India,Israel,Bangladesh).[13] Several parliamentary republics, such asIreland,Austria,Croatia,Bulgaria and theCzech Republic, operate using a semi-presidential system with a directly elected president distinct from the prime minister.[14]
A head of government is in charge of the daily business of government and overseeing central government institutions. In presidential systems the president is the head of government and head of state. In parliamentary systems the head of government is usually the leader of the party with the most seats in the legislature.[15] Several examples of heads of government who are chosen through indirect elections are summarized below.
The most prominent position in parliamentary democracies is the prime ministership.[16]
Under theWestminster system, named after and typified by theparliament of the United Kingdom, a prime minister (or first minister, premier, or chief minister) is the person that can command the largest coalition of supporters in parliament. In almost all cases, the prime minister is the leader of a political party (orcoalition) that has a majority in the parliament, or thelower house (such as theHouse of Commons), or in the situation that no one party has a majority then the largest party or a coalition of smaller parties may attempt to form a minority government. The prime minister is thus indirectly elected as political parties elect their own leader through internal democratic process, while the general public choose from amongst the local candidates of the various political parties or independents.[17]
The Westminster model continues to be used in a number ofCommonwealth countries includingAustralia,Canada,New Zealand,Singapore and theUnited Kingdom.[18] Additionally many nations colonized by the British Empire inherited the Westminster model following their independence.[19]
InSpain, theCongress of Deputies votes on amotion of confidence of theking's nominee (customarily the party leader whose party controls the Congress) and the nominee'spolitical manifesto, an example of an indirect election of theprime minister of Spain.[20]
InGermany, thefederal chancellor - the most powerful position on the federal level - is elected indirectly by theBundestag, which in turn is elected by the population.[21] Thefederal president, the head of state, proposes candidates for the chancellor's office. Although this has never happened, the Bundestag may in theory also choose to elect another person into office, which the president has to accept.[22]
Some countries have nonpartisan heads of government who are appointed by the president, such as thePrime Minister of Singapore.[23]
Members of theGerman Bundesrat are appointed (delegated) by theLandtag of the variousstates.
InFrance, election to the upper house of Parliament, theSénat, is indirect. Electors (called "Grands électeurs") are locally elected representatives.
Members of the IndianRajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) are largely elected directly by theVidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) of the variousstates and Union territories; some are appointed by thepresident.
Indirect single transferable voting is used to elect some members of theSenate of Pakistan.[24]
TheNational People's Congress of China is elected by lower level of thesystem of people's congress.[25]
Some examples of indirectly electedsupranational legislatures include: the parliamentary assemblies of theCouncil of Europe,OSCE andNATO – in all of these cases, voters elect national parliamentarians, who in turn elect some of their own members to the assembly. The same applies to bodies formed by representatives chosen by a national government, e.g. theUnited Nations General Assembly – assuming the national governments in question aredemocratically elected in the first place.
TheControl Yuan ofChina, formerly a parliamentary chamber, was elected by its respective legislatures across the country: five from each province, two from each directly administered municipality, eight from Mongolia (by 1948 only the Inner Mongolian provinces were represented), eight from Tibet and eight from the overseas Chinese communities. As originally envisioned both the President and Vice President of the Control Yuan were to be elected by and from the members like the speaker of many other parliamentary bodies worldwide. The Control Yuan became a sole auditory body in Taiwan in 1993 afterdemocratization.
Members of theUnited States Senate were elected by theLegislature of the variousstates until ratification of theSeventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913. Since that time they have been elected by direct popular vote.
Indirect elections can have a lower politicalaccountability andresponsiveness compared todirect elections.[26]