Various Assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Various Assignments - Essay Example Democracy typically requires that election systems result in proportional representation in that multi-party elections with a leader will typically mirror the concerns of the entire electorate (Smith, 2010). The US is split down the middle between two parties with precious few independent candidates interspersed at intervals. The US Presidential election itself often results in â€Å"winner takes all† outcome leaving those who did not elect the President feeling largely unrepresented (Smith, 2010, p. 135). This is the highest office in the US with both procedural and substantive defects. The procedural defects not only follow from the poorly administrative workings of the election process at the polls. The procedural defects also follow from the Electoral College. The Electoral College, informed by the popular vote, elects the President. However, by virtue of Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, the Electoral College is not constitutionally obligated to elect a president consistent with the popular vote (US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 1). Therefore there is always a risk that the College Electorate may go against the popular vote and even if they did, there is no way for the population to know. This may account for the relatively low voter turnout at US Presidential elections as compared to other major government elections in other Western democracies (Smith, 2010). Therefore the US Presidential election process is by far the most flawed in that it does not allow for direct election by the voting public and in essence denies total or full representation. Moreover, the Presidential election campaign system is a long and complex exercise in which candidates engage in campaigns that typically involve â€Å"many twists and turns and seem to hinge on trivial incident and personal foibles† that are essentially meaningless in terms