Key Elements of Representative Government
For democratic decision-making to function effectively, there are
specific elements that are outlined in the key elements of
representative government. These include:
* The rule of law
* Universal franchise and regular elections
* One vote one value and secret ballot
* Payment of members of parliament
* Parliamentary privilege
* Rights to protest, association and political expression
* Open parliamentary debates
* Separation of powers
The rule of law states that citizens must have equal standing before
the law, to stand for election and to vote. There must also be strict
rules regulating the electoral process and all government action must
be taken in accordance with the law.
Universal franchise and regular elections means that every eligible
adult must have the right to vote regardless of their sex, race,
cultural background and religious or personal beliefs. It is also
important that the representatives are held accountable to the voters
at regular elections. This ensures that the people can have their say
at regular intervals and if they do not want a certain government to
hold power then they have the right to elect a new government.
One vote one value and secret ballot means that each vote must have
equal value of others and should be conducted in privacy to prevent
intimidation or corruption.
To allow all members of the community to participate in democracy, all
politicians must be paid. If political members were not paid, then
only wealthy people would be able to stand for parliament, thus only
the wealthy would be represented....
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...rms.
* The commonwealth is prohibited to make laws about religion.
The states are given the residual power residing in the constitution.
This means that the states are allowed to make laws in the subject
areas not formally written in the constitution. Theses areas include:
* Civil and criminal law
* Environment
* Women and children
* Public health, education and housing
Many of the heads of power are concurrent with the states. This means
that both the commonwealth and the states can make laws on them. The
inconsistency rule was included to deal with the possibility of
differing federal and state law.
Section 109 states;
When a law of a state is inconsistent with a law of commonwealth, the
latter shall prevail, and former shall, to the extent of the
inconsistency, be invalid.
The congress enables the passing of the legislation which normally prohibits the state for the actions which is generally violated. The limitation of banning the congress literacy for the test of voting, the upheld of the ban due to the court since it determines the tests which is literacy for tends of the abuse which is often completed through the banned. The declaration of Supreme Court in 1997 the freedom for the religious according to the religion act, this involves the congress which are tried due to the use of the enforcement clauses which over turn the court’s decision which regards the clause of the free exercise, that is the unconstitutional. The proposed action from the legislation does the remedy of action of preventing due to the prohibition from the 14th amendments.
What principles and ideals lie at the heart of a free democratic society? Canadians take pride in their country’s values of tolerance, inclusion, and respect, and over Canada’s guaranteed freedom of expression, including the right to vote (Thevenard & Orend, 2015). In democratic Canada, “all eligible citizens have the right to participate, either directly or indirectly, in making the decisions that affect them” ("Democracy Defined"). Voting, in essence, ensures all citizens receive an equal opportunity to express their views by selecting and supporting a political party of their choice. Such an approach provides freedom of expression for all eligible citizens, allowing for the political party with the most votes to take over the ruling.
If those in power do not obey the social contract, the commonwealth has the right to create a new social contract so the state of nature does not prevail. The sovereign is entrusted with unlimited power, but must always act in a way that protects the people. Laws from the sovereign allow the commonwealth to not constantly fear death. Like principalities, sovereignty is allowed ultimate rule. It is similar to a republic in which the ruler has to abide by the will of the people.
The authors describe some of the advantages of a MMP system: “Mixed electoral systems provide fairly proportional outcomes, maintain the geographic link between constituents and members, provide for greater choice, and allow the opportunity for smaller parties to represented in Parliament” (p. 11). This system works better than the current FPTP or plurality system, because it allows citizen’s a second opportunity to have a voice. This is important because it would allow our minority groups to have a greater political influence. As mentioned earlier, in the current system all votes for candidates who lost, were insignificant to the election outcome. The authors explain: “Only those votes that go to the eventual winner count towards electing a representative, which may discourage people from voting or promote disaffection with the system” (p. 3). Alternatively, the MMP system allows citizen’s a second opportunity to elect party members in order to proportionally represent the popular
...d I believe that proportional representation would be the most effective system to further the goals of democracy. If we use the single member plurality system we automatically ignore and exclude the voice of the people who didn’t win the election in a first past the post method. On the other hand in the proportional system rather than all seats being given to the party with the most votes every party gets the seats equal to the amount of votes they were able to obtain. This would allow all the people who voted to have their ‘”voice” represented in the government even though the party they voted for did not end up winning the election. This would encourage and engage many citizens to become involved in the political process; who otherwise would be discourage to vote at the fact that even if they vote, if their party loses their vote would be useless.
The foundation of representative government is the power of the people to make laws for the good of all people. King George interfered with that process by rejecting legislation proposed by the colonies, dissolving colonial ...
Since the founding of our nation, government has constantly been changing and developing as the United States has been evolving. What started out as thirteen colonies rules by another country expanded into fifty states of an independent country each with its own ideas and people to look out for. With this expanding country it was important that the government expand but also that the American people felt like they had a voice. Their voice can be heard in the varying types of participation of the political process at the national, state, and local level. Mona Field’s California Government and Politics Today and Ann O’M. Bowman’s State and Local Government: The Essentials both discuss the topics of the importance of state government, the levels and types of political participation done by Americans, and the increasing importance of state governments.
The decision for Australia to adopt the Federal system was on the principle of which the State’s governments wanted to keep their power. For this reason there was the separation of powers between the newly formed Commonwealth government and the existing State governments. At a constitutional level, there are rulings in which the powers are separated, these rulings due to disputes have slightly changed since 1901. These changes all fell towards the one government, the Commonwealth (Federal) government. However this was not just a landslide event, the Constitution of Australia set up this imbalance of powers between the Commonwealth and State governments. We will explore this further in the points discussed later in this essay.
“The Parliament shall, subject to the Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: (xxi) Marriage: (xxii) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and relation thereto, parental rights and the custody and guardianship of inf...
Sections 7 and 24 of the Commonwealth Constitution confer an implied right to vote. This interpretation comes from that the people elected to be the members of the Senate and the House of Representative are defined as ‘directly chosen by the people’. In other words, the equal electorate needs for the people who participate in elections to express their wills through their representative. Accordingly, the implied right is consistent with the definitions of representative democracy and representative government. The following case, Rowe, is considered the both notions, bu...
The United Kingdom is formally called “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” Government in the United Kingdom is considered to be Parliamentary. Although it is parliamentary, it is also described as being “majoritarian.” Parliament in the UK works a little different than the United States; the people of the U.S. are allowed to elect their president. In the parliamentary system the people elect who will be in the legislature, and the legislature then selects who the next prime minister will be. Then, once the prime minister is selected he choses members of the cabinet. This system creates a quick and easy political decision-making by popular majority. In this essay we will discuss the strengths and limitations the majoritarian government of the UK. One of the strengths of majoritarian government is perhaps that it is the fastest to pass or veto legislation, however there are limitations or weaknesses also like it lacks checks and balances from the House of Lords, and the disadvantage that the smaller parties have when it comes to elections, and not having a set calendar date for elections.
The concept of parliamentary political system was rooted in 1707 of Great Britain; the word derives from ‘parley’, a discussion. It was used to describe meetings between Henry III and noblemen in the Great Council (Szilagyi, 2009). It was originated in British political system and is often known as the Westminster model as it was used in the Palace of Westminster. It became influential throughout many European nations later in the 18th century (Smith, 2010). Countries with parliamentary systems are either constitutional monarchies such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, and Canada or parliamentary republics such as Greece, India, Ireland and Italy (McTeer, 1995). The parliamentary type of government is known for its three distinctive features; first, executive is divided into the head of state and the head of government, they are independently elected forming a dual executive; second, the fusion of ...
such as Britain parliament; the modern supervise of the democracy use the laws, separation of
Yet, there are nations that ascribe to the democratic ideals as realistically as possible. By allowing and encouraging citizens to vote and by creating and implementing laws equally, these democratic governments are instituting some of the most important ideals of a democratic government. Works Cited Economist Intelligence Unit. The "Democracy Index 2010" Information Policy. -. Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010.
In a democracy, free and fair elections which are held after around half a decade, guarantee social rights and equality. These elections ensure that every citizen has the right to vote, and hence they create social stability among the society. Each and every individual casting his vote in the elections reduces discrimination among the people. Citizens are not judged on the basis of religion, race, color, social status and so on. In this way, the dignity of nationals is not damaged and people can live in peace. In addition to voting rights, a democracy also assures access to other services like security, education, property rights, and healthcare facilities. These human rights maintain social equity and involv...