The global use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democraticarchetype, ancientAthens, where the elections were considered anoligarchic institution and most political offices were filled usingsortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.[1]
Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fairelectoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness or effectiveness of existing systems.Psephology is the study of results and otherstatistics relating to elections (especially with a view to predicting future results). Election is the fact of electing, or being elected.
Toelect means "to select or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such asreferendums are referred to as elections, especially in theUnited States .
ThePala KingGopala (ruledc. 750s – 770s CE) in early medievalBengal was elected by a group of feudal chieftains. Such elections were quite common in contemporary societies of the region.[3][4] In theChola Empire, around 920 CE, inUthiramerur (in present-dayTamil Nadu), palm leaves were used for selecting the village committee members. The leaves, with candidate names written on them, were put inside a mud pot. To select the committee members, a young boy was asked to take out as many leaves as the number of positions available. This was known as theKudavolai system.[5][6]
Questions ofsuffrage, especially suffrage for minority groups, have dominated the history of elections. Males, the dominant cultural group in North America and Europe, often dominated theelectorate and continue to do so in many countries.[2] Early elections in countries such as theUnited Kingdom andthe United States were dominated bylanded orruling class males.[2] By 1920 all Western European and North American democracies had universal adult male suffrage (except Switzerland) and many countries began to considerwomen's suffrage.[2] Despite legally mandated universal suffrage for adult males, political barriers were sometimes erected to prevent fair access to elections (seecivil rights movement).[2]
Elections are held in a variety of political, organizational, and corporate settings. Many countries hold elections to select people to serve in their governments, but other types of organizations hold elections as well. For example, many corporations hold elections amongshareholders to select aboard of directors, and these elections may be mandated bycorporate law.[13] In many places, an election to the government is usually a competition among people who have already won aprimary election within apolitical party.[14] Elections within corporations and other organizations often use procedures and rules that are similar to those of governmental elections.[15]
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 who are under the age of majority from voting. All jurisdictions require a minimum age for voting.
In Australia,Aboriginal people were not given the right to vote until 1962 (see1967 referendum entry) and in 2010 the federal government removed the rights of prisoners serving for three years or more to vote (a large proportion of whom were Aboriginal Australians).
Suffrage is typically only for citizens of the country, though further limits may be imposed.
In the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in the municipality and is an EU citizen; the nationality of the country of residence is not required.
Campaigners working on posters inMilan, Italy, 2004
In some countries, voting is required by law. Eligible voters may be subject to punitive measures such as a fine for not casting a vote. In Western Australia, the penalty for a first time offender failing to vote is a $20.00 fine, which increases to $50.00 if the offender refused to vote prior.[16]
Historically the size of eligible voters, the electorate, was small having the size of groups or communities of privileged men likearistocrats and men of a city (citizens).
With the growth of the number of people withbourgeois citizen rights outside of cities, expanding the term citizen, the electorates grew to numbers beyond the thousands.Elections with an electorate in the hundred thousands appeared in the final decades of theRoman Republic, by extending voting rights to citizens outside of Rome with theLex Julia of 90 BC, reaching an electorate of 910,000 and estimatedvoter turnout of maximum 10% in 70 BC,[17] only again comparable in size to thefirst elections of the United States. At the same time theKingdom of Great Britain had in 1780 about 214,000 eligible voters, 3% of the whole population.[18]Naturalization can reshape the electorate of a country.[19]
Arepresentative democracy requires a procedure to govern nomination for political office. In many cases, nomination for office is mediated throughpreselection processes in organized political parties.[20]
Non-partisan systems tend to be different from partisan systems as concerns nominations. In adirect democracy, one type ofnon-partisan democracy, any eligible person can be nominated. Although elections were used in ancient Athens, in Rome, and in the selection of popes and Holy Roman emperors, the origins of elections in the contemporary world lie in the gradual emergence of representative government in Europe and North America beginning in the 17th century. In some systems no nominations 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 involveindirect 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).
Map showing the main types electoral systems used to elect candidates to thelower or sole (unicameral) house of national legislatures, as of January 2022[update]:
Electoral systems are the detailed constitutional arrangements and voting systems that convert the vote into a political decision.
The first step is for voters to cast theballots, which may be simple single-choice ballots, but other types, such as multiple choice orranked ballots may also be used. Then the votes are tallied, for which variousvote counting systems may be used. and the voting system then determines the result on the basis of the tally. Most systems can be categorized as eitherproportional,majoritarian ormixed. Among the proportional systems, the most commonly used areparty-list proportional representation (list PR) systems, among majoritarian arefirst-past-the-post electoral system (single winnerplurality voting) and different methods of majority voting (such as the widely usedtwo-round system).Mixed systems combine elements of both proportional and majoritarian methods, with some typically producing results closer to the former (mixed-member proportional) or the other (e.g.parallel voting).
Many countries have growing electoral reform movements, which advocate systems such asapproval voting,single transferable vote,instant runoff voting or aCondorcet 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 andaccountability 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. Thesecret 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.
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 utilizecampaign advertising. It is common for political scientists to attempt to predict elections viapolitical forecasting methods.
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 theirmandate to continue in office. For that reason, most democratic constitutions provide that elections are held at fixed regular intervals. In the United States, elections for public offices are typically held between every two and six years in most states and at the federal level, with exceptions for elected judicial positions that may have longer terms of office. There is a variety of schedules, for example, presidents: thePresident of Ireland is elected every seven years, thePresident of Russia and thePresident of Finland every six years, thePresident of France every five years,President of the United States every four years.
Predetermined or fixed election dates have the advantage of fairness and predictability. They tend to greatly lengthen campaigns, and makedissolving the legislature (parliamentary system) more problematic if the date should happen to fall at a time when dissolution is inconvenient (e.g. when war breaks out). Other states (e.g., theUnited 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 remains in power for close to its full term, and chooses an election date it calculates to be in its best interests (unless something special happens, such as amotion of no-confidence). This calculation depends on a number of variables, such as its performance in opinion polls and the size of its majority.
Rolling elections are elections in which allrepresentatives in a body are elected, but these elections are spread over a period of time rather than all at once. Examples are the presidentialprimaries in theUnited States,Elections to the European Parliament (where, due to differing election laws in each member state, elections are held on different days of the same week) and, due to logistics, general elections inLebanon andIndia. The voting procedure in theLegislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic are also a classical example.
In rolling elections, voters have information about previous voters' choices. While in the first elections, there may be plenty of hopeful candidates, in the last rounds consensus on one winner is generally achieved. In today's context of rapid communication, candidates can put disproportionate resources into competing strongly in the first few stages, because those stages affect the reaction of latter stages.
Buenos Aires 1892: "The rival voters were kept back by an armed force of police out of sight to others. Only batches of two or three were allowed to enter the polling office at a time. Armed sentries guarded the gates and the doors."Godefroy Durand,The Graphic, 21 May 1892.
In many of the countries with weakrule of law, the most common reason why elections do not meet international standards of being "free and fair" is interference from the incumbent government.Dictators may use the powers of the executive (police, martial law, censorship, physical implementation of the election mechanism, etc.) to remain in power despite popular opinion in favour of removal. Members of a particular faction in a legislature may use the power of the majority or supermajority (passing criminal laws, and defining the electoral mechanisms including eligibility and district boundaries) to prevent the balance of power in the body from shifting to a rival faction due to an election.[2]
Non-governmental entities can also interfere with elections, through physical force, verbal intimidation, or fraud, which can result in improper casting or counting of votes. Monitoring for and minimizing electoral fraud is also an ongoing task in countries with strong traditions of free and fair elections. Problems that prevent an election from being "free and fair" take various forms.[22]
Lack of open political debate or an informed electorate
The electorate may be poorly informed about issues or candidates due to lack offreedom of the press, lack of objectivity in the press due to state or corporate control, or lack of access to news and political media.Freedom of speech may be curtailed by the state, favouring certain viewpoints or statepropaganda.
Gerrymandering, exclusion of opposition candidates from eligibility for office, needlessly high restrictions on who may be a candidate, likeballot access rules, and manipulating thresholds for electoral success are some of the ways the structure of an election can be changed to favour a specific faction or candidate. Schedulingfrequent elections can also lead tovoter fatigue.
Those in power may arrest or assassinate candidates, suppress or even criminalize campaigning, close campaign headquarters, harass or beat campaign workers, or intimidate voters with violence.Foreign electoral intervention can also occur, with the United States interfering between 1946 and 2000 in 81 elections andRussia or theSoviet Union in 36.[23]In 2018 the most intense interventions, utilizing false information, were byChina inTaiwan and byRussia inLatvia; the next highest levels were in Bahrain, Qatar and Hungary.[24]
This can include falsifying voter instructions,[25]violation of thesecret ballot,ballot stuffing, tampering with voting machines,[26]destruction of legitimately cast ballots,[27]voter suppression, voter registration fraud, failure to validate voter residency, fraudulent tabulation of results, and use of physical force or verbal intimation at polling places. Other examples include persuading candidates not to run, such as through blackmailing, bribery, intimidation or physical violence.
Asham election, orshow election, is an election that is held purely for show; that is, without any significant political choice or real impact on the results of the election.[28]
Sham elections are a common event indictatorial regimes that feel the need to feign the appearance of publiclegitimacy. Published results usually show nearly 100%voter turnout and high support (typically at least 80%, and close to 100% in many cases) for the prescribed candidates or for thereferendum choice that favours thepolitical party in power. Dictatorial regimes can also organize sham elections with results simulating those that might be achieved in democratic countries.[29]
Sometimes, only one government-approved candidate is allowed to run in sham elections with no opposition candidates allowed, or opposition candidates are arrested on false charges (or even without any charges) before the election to prevent them from running.[30][31][32]
Ballots may contain only one "yes" option, or in the case of a simple "yes or no" question, security forces oftenpersecute people who pick "no", thus encouraging them to pick the "yes" option. In other cases, those who vote receive stamps in their passport for doing so, while those who did not vote (and thus do not receive stamps) are persecuted asenemies of the people.[33][34]
Sham elections can sometimes backfire against the party in power, especially if the regime believes they are popular enough to win without coercion, fraud or suppressing the opposition. The most famous example of this was the1990 Myanmar general election, in which the government-sponsoredNational Unity Party suffered a landslide defeat by the oppositionNational League for Democracy and consequently, the results were annulled.[35]
InMexico, all of the presidential elections from1929 to1982 are considered to be sham elections, as theInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its predecessors governed the country in ade facto single-party system without serious opposition, and they won all of the presidential elections in that period with more than 70% of the vote. The first seriously competitive presidential election in modern Mexican history was that of1988, in which for the first time the PRI candidate faced two strong opposition candidates, though it is believed that the government rigged the result. The first fair election was held in1994, though the opposition did not win until2000.
A predetermined conclusion is permanently established by the regime throughsuppression of the opposition,coercion of voters,vote rigging, reporting several votes received greater than the number of voters, outright lying, or some combination of these. In an extreme example,Charles D. B. King ofLiberia was reported to have won by 234,000 votes in the1927 general election, a "majority" that was over fifteen times larger than the number of eligible voters.[38]
Some scholars argue that the predominance of elections in modernliberal democracies masks the fact that they are actually aristocratic selection mechanisms[39] that deny each citizen an equal chance of holding public office. Such views were expressed as early as the time ofAncient Greece byAristotle.[39] According to Frenchpolitical scientist Bernard Manin, the inegalitarian nature of elections stems from four factors: the unequal treatment of candidates by voters, the distinction of candidates required by choice, the cognitive advantage conferred by salience, and the costs of disseminating information.[40] These four factors result in the evaluation of candidates based on voters' partial standards of quality and social saliency (for example, skin colour and good looks). This leads to self-selection biases in candidate pools due to unobjective standards of treatment by voters and the costs (barriers to entry) associated with raising one's political profile. Ultimately, the result is the election of candidates who are superior (whether in actuality or as perceived within a cultural context) and objectively unlike the voters they are supposed to represent.[40]
Evidence suggests that the concept of electing representatives was originally conceived to be different fromdemocracy.[41] Prior to the 18th century, some societies inWestern Europe usedsortition as a means to select rulers, a method which allowed regular citizens to exercise power, in keeping with understandings of democracy at the time.[42] The idea of what constituted a legitimate government shifted in the 18th century to includeconsent, especially with the rise of theenlightenment. From this point onward, sortition fell out of favor as a mechanism for selecting rulers. On the other hand, elections began to be seen as a way for the masses to express popular consent repeatedly, resulting in the triumph of the electoral process until the present day.[43]
This conceptual misunderstanding of elections as open and egalitarian when they are not innately so may thus be a root cause of theproblems in contemporary governance.[44] Those in favor of this view argue that the modern system of elections was never meant to give ordinary citizens the chance to exercise power - merely privileging their right to consent to those who rule.[45] Therefore, the representatives that modern electoral systems select for are too disconnected, unresponsive, and elite-serving.[39][46][47] To deal with this issue, various scholars have proposed alternative models of democracy, many of which include a return to sortition-based selection mechanisms. The extent to which sortition should be the dominant mode of selecting rulers[46] or instead be hybridised with electoral representation[48] remains a topic of debate.
^Nitish K. Sengupta (2011)."The Imperial Palas".Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib. Penguin Books India. pp. 39–49.ISBN978-0-14-341678-4.
^Sandri, Giulia; Seddone, Antonella (2015).Party Primaries in Comparative Perspective. Routledge. p. 1.ISBN9781472450388.
^Glazer, Amihai; Glazer, Debra G.; Grofman, Bernard (1984). "Cumulative Voting in Corporate Elections: Introducing Strategy into the Equation".South Carolina Law Review.35 (2):295–311.
^Reuven Hazan, 'Candidate Selection', in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds),Comparing Democracies 2, Sage Publications, London, 2002[ISBN missing]
^San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury (24 July 2019)."Security of Election Announcements"(PDF). Superior Court of California. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 August 2019. Retrieved20 August 2019.
^abcFerejohn, John; Rosenbluth, Frances (2010). "10". In Shapiro, Ian; Stokes, Susan C.; Wood, Elisabeth Jean; Kirshner, Alexander S. (eds.).Political Representation. Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780511813146.
^abManin, Bernard (1997).The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge University Press. pp. 134–149.ISBN9780511659935.
^Manin, Bernard (1997).The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge University Press. p. 4.ISBN9780511659935.
^Manin, Bernard (1997).The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge University Press. p. 42.ISBN9780511659935.
^Manin, Bernard (1997).The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge University Press. pp. 79–93.ISBN9780511659935.
^Landemore, Hélène (2020).Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. p. 33.ISBN978-0691181998.
^Landemore, Hélène (2020). "Prologue".Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. pp. xiv.ISBN978-0691181998.
^abLandemore, Hélène (2020).Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0691181998.
^Reybrouck, David Van (2016).Against Elections: The Case for Democracy. Random House UK.ISBN978-1847924223.
^Gastil, John; Wright, Erik Olin (2019).Legislature by Lot: Transformative Designs for Deliberative Governance. Verso.ISBN9781788736084.
Owen, Bernard, 2002. "Le système électoral et son effet sur la représentation parlementaire des partis: le cas européen", LGDJ;
Riker, William. 1980.Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
.svg)
