How do elections promote democracy?

 What are democratic elections? Elections are the central institution of democratic representative governments. The UK’s electoral system is known as ‘first past the post’. It is the simplest form of an electoral system. In this kind of system each parliamentary constituency returns a single MP who is elected by the plurality i.e. whoever gains the most votes, wins. This can be described as a ‘simple majority’. Each constituency has only one vote, the winning candidate doesn’t have to win an absolute majority i.e. over 50% of the vote.

 There are both advantages of the British electoral system- ‘first past the post’. The advantages are:

•  This system is easy to understand. The voters have only one choice and understand that they are voting for an MP of a particular party, a party which they wish to see in government.
• It gives clear and usually decisive results. There is rarely any uncertainty after an election; the winning party is able to set up a government without any hiatus.
• The fact that a solitary party usually wins outright means that the doctrine of mandate and manifesto can operate. This means parties campaign in elections with a clear manifesto and if they win, there is no doubt that they have the authority to implement the manifesto.
• There is a strong traditional link between British communities and their MPs.

The disadvantages are:

• The system is clearly unfair. It discriminates against parties and does not give equal value to all votes.
• It encourages tactical voting, this is where voters feel forced into voting for a party they do not support simply to have a say in the outcome.
• Electors do not have the chance to discriminate between candidates of the same party. They must put up with the choice made by a small group of party activists.
• People would prefer to have a representative from the party they support rather than a single MP to represent constituents.

So now we come to our main question. How do elections promote democracy?

 

Voting in the election of public officials is the most visible and common form of participation in modern democracies and also the most fundamental. The ability to conduct free and fair elections is at the core of what it means to call a society democratic. In a democratic society, the publics opinion is viewed as important, in an election the official who is appointed is only appointed because in the publics opinion he/she is suitable. This way the government knows what the general public think. This is one way that elections promote democracy.                

The purpose of elections:

• To select a government that we want
• To get people’s view across
• To select representative
• Symbol of our democracy
• Allows participation
• People have real power – satisfaction
• Accountability
• Educating
• Recruiting ‘an elite’

All the above purposes promote democracy in a way. Our electoral system provides a strong and stable government. This is because the government does what the public want, nobody complains against the, and due to this the government becomes stable and strong, which is another way in which elections promote democracy.