Liberal Democracy: Source Analysis

Source one illustrates the idea of the elitist theory of democracy. The source depicts that the uninformed decisions made by the “ ill-equipped” majority can affect the stability as well as the security of the country, and it may eventually undermine the principles of liberal democracy. In countries that carry out liberal democracy, like Canada and the United States, citizens are given the rights and freedoms to participate in politics. At the same time, citizens have the responsibility to make conscious and informed choices. However, these countries often faced a common problem is that the constituencies are not notified and they made decisions without considerations. This could ruin democracy since these voters are not making decisions for

According to the source, voting seems to be worthless in both countries. The cartoon on the right hand side that represent the Soviet elections reveals a form of authoritarian government which is one-party state. In that image, the line showed on the television “ Vote Anosov! Your only choice.” supports that there is only one political party and even though the constituencies have voted or not, that only party will still automatically elected. The cartoon on the left hand side that represent Canadian elections discloses the flaws of the first-past-the-post system in which the party that won the most of the seats would win the riding. The lines displayed on the screen “ Network Projection Miller WINS!”, “ with 20% of the votes counted” and the conversation between the couples, demonstrated that the people have assumed the victor. As a result, the citizens would think that their votes are ineffective and there would not have any changes even if they vote. In liberal democracies, voter turnout is extremely vital, since it shows the will of the people and its consequence can determine the society as a whole. The source depicts that either having no choice or having choices, both of the systems are undermining democracy. In one-party states, the people’s rights and freedoms to vote for their favoured parties is eliminated, as there is only one party in power. In liberal democracies that with

He stated that after all, this system would hinder the will of the people and even undermine the liberal democracies. According to the first paragraph of the quotation, Das plainly declared that the flaws caused by the first-past-the-post system could not solve easily through tinkering. He also hinted that “ most majority governments are elected with less than half the votes.” This displays that there are votes being neglected. In the second paragraph, Das proclaimed a new electing system which is proportional representatives. Under this system, the percentage of votes that won by the party would determine that party’s percentage of seats in the parliament. In this case, every vote are counted and important to the result of the election. Consequently, no vote would be “ squandered”. Even though a representative from a specific party wins, the people’s votes would still be considered and being used to elect representatives of a party or platform that they approved with. As a result, there would be a more diversive government and eventually, the will of the people from different aspects can have a say in the politics. In the last paragraph, Das affirmed that although altering the previous electoral system will not entirely change the attitude of the voters, it could help to enhance democracy and ensure the influence of the will of the people. To