Political Science 357 West European Politics Research Design Assignment Research Question: In this paper, I investigate the following question: How does multipartyism affect citizen confidence in the economy? This question is important for our understanding because it explains how multipartyism affects citizen’s attitudes from a cross-national perspective on outcomes of governmental activity within the economy. By understanding and clarifying distinctions in the way multipartyism affects citizen confidence in the economy this will help clarify why some citizens trust multipartyism parliaments and others don't. Theory: Decline of citizen confidence should have a greater influence in multipartyism. Katzenstein (2000) uses the word “confidence” …show more content…
Policy-makers often blame poor bureaucratic performance as a cause of the declining citizen trust (Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004; Van de Walle, Van Roosbroek, and Bouckaert 2008). Hypotheses: H1: Parliament’s inability to produce outcomes of the same quality as in the past results in decline of citizen confidence. Hypothesis one tests and assesses the characteristics of government performance and how it affects an individual’s confidence level in compared to the past. I expect that the higher government performance outcomes are, the more likely citizen confidence stays consistent toward multipartyism. If my theory is true than the affect should be a greater level. H2: The more input citizens have within a multipartyism parliament the greater their interests will be represented. Hypothesis two examines the socio-demographics of citizen interests in multipartyism that provides all citizens with direct representation on a broad ideological spectrum. I expect that there will be a higher level of citizen involvement. Therefore, the more multipartyism directly represents constituents it should lead to a higher level of citizen …show more content…
Europe would be a wonderful place to study political science because not only can you get involved since it’s a multiparty system but the relationship seems to be one of a positive one between regime at both levels of government. Although, there are numerous evaluations that EU citizens partake in, their confidence has a big impact in the EU and this would be ideal to see, examine and partake in, if possible. This assignment would have been somewhat of a different one if I were studying in Europe because not only would I have access to more hard-copy information, I could speak with more people about citizen confidence and how they feel the multiparty system affects them. You would have access to more information within libraries that would be detrimental to this assignment and I believe if time permitted it would be easier to conduct my own surveys on citizen confidence, socio-demographic preferences and the economic affects multipartyism has had on EU citizens. I would be able to potentially test my hypotheses since it would be directed on EU citizens and government. I believe after talking with citizens and learning more about concerns and policies within that timeframe my design would be a different one tailored to the current topics going on within the
‘Confidence in the government declined between 1968 and 1980 largely due to political scandal’. To what extent do you agree?
In this essay, I will explain why Texas should retain the partisan election of judges. Texas is one of the few states that elect their judges using a Partisan voting method. Partisan elections can be unfair and can misinform the voter. A high legal position such as a judge should never be chosen in such a manner. Partisan elections often cost more than nonpartisan elections in campaigning. Partisan elections are also more likely to lead to straight ticket voting or mindless voting. Partisan elections also lead to more campaign contributions and can increase the power of constituencies. Lastly partisan elections can cause an imbalance in equal represent the population. Therefore, Partisanship voting does not belong in the courts of Texas and
Norris, P. 1997. Choosing Electoral Systems: Proportional, Majoritarian and Mixed Systems. International Political Science Review. 18(3): 297-312.
Factions, or parties, are described in The Federalist No. 10 as groups of citizens “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest.” According to Madison, these human passions divide the public into competing parties that are “much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.” These parties often negatively impact the rights of other citizens as they pursue their own specialized goals, but it is “the nature of man” to create them. Thus, in order to protect the rights and voices of the people, a successful government must be committed to the regulation of these various factions. A pure (direct) democracy, argues Madison, cannot effectively do this because it offers every citizen a vote in serious public matters, and economic stratification alone prevents th...
The low level of political engagement that Schier says is going to be approximately 50% of the citizenry can be explained in many ways. One of the reasons for the low level is what Martin Wattenberg points as being the citizenry lacking party identification. People are tending to not identify with a party and therefore not vote solely for that party. Wattenberg claims that some saw the lack of party identification to have implication that seemed quite threatening for democracy (Wattenberg, 23-25). Keefe points out that “strong partisans are less numerous than in the past. Split-ticket voting is common everywhere. Most voters do not view parties in a favorable light (Keefe, 74).” With the lack of party identification has come the rise of parties of accommodation. Parties of accommodation have made it impossible for the number of citizens engaged in politics to remain as high as it once was. If the party does not stand for something than people aren’t as interested in making a stand with the party. In the 2000 election there where 2 parties of accommodation running candidates of accommodation against each ot...
We must guard against partisanship and promote comprise in our government by changing its structure; one of the ways this can be done is by preventing factions that influence the judgment of our representatives from forming. This is a very important issue to solve because the power that factions have on our politicians personally and politically makes them less likely to vote on important legislation. The two ways to do this are as follows: (1) remove its causes to keep them from forming and (2) Control its effects (Kernell, 2013, p. 77). In order to prevent future factions, such as the tea party movement, from forming, politicians from the party which it originated have to start working on developing their own position that will help curtail factions from forming and hurting its own pa...
Words often associated with democracy are freedom, choice, representation, voice and opinion. However, what happens when there is an excessive number of representatives and too many politicians voicing their opinions? The choice of whom to vote for becomes harder due to the barrage of opinions. The influx of political parties has greatly affected the elections, as poll results show that minority parties are receiving votes from Canadians which diminishes the amount of votes going to the main parties.
Americans are often told that every vote counts but unfortunately in today's system this is false, and a great deal of our votes count for nothing at all. By implementing proportional representation, however, America as a nation will be moving towards actually making every vote count and every perspective heard. Proportional representation, if used in conjunction with programs to increase voter awareness and voting ease, will ensure a more politically involved youth and a more democratic democracy.
According to Robert Dahl, there is an increasing nature of plebiscitary politics in America. It means that there is an increasing trend of direct communication between the US public and the elected members while at the same time, the intermediaries are falling. These demising intermediaries include membership organizations and political [parties that used to serve as a representation of public opinion for the elected members. The plebiscitary politics is highly facilitated by the
During the second half of the past century the notion that, political science should be treated as a science became extremely popular among academics specially in the United States. One of the most prominent exposers of this school of thought was Anthony Downs, who developed a theorem to explain in a rather economic sense, how and why voters behave in a certain way when it comes to voting. Downs did not only applied his theory to the way voters behave, he also used it to explain the way political parties align themselves when it comes to elections in a two and a multiparty system nevertheless this essay will analyze Downs’ claims about a two party system only. This essay argues that the Downs’ model has proven to be accurate in many cases throughout history, nevertheless it makes a series of assumptions about voters and parties that can not be considered realistic neither in 1957, when he published his paper An Economic Theory of Political Action in Democracy in 1957 nor in 2013. This essay also acknowledges that fact that this theory might help to explain how parties behave but it is by no means the only explanation. Furthermore this essay will prove that it is a multiplicity of factors rather than an economic theory what can help us understand why parties behave the way they do. In order to support the argument previously stated this essay will state and critically analyze a number of Downs assumptions, then his theory will be outlined. Then it will carefully consider how effective it has been at predicting the way in which parties align themselves by examining the behavior of political parties during general elections in different countries.
Firstly, it is known that party affiliation is greatly influential in voter’s decisions. Because it is usually reinforced by society, party identification tends to be very strong, and typically unchangeable throughout an individual’s life. However, even though it might influence an individual’s decision on Presidential elections, it is more effective in shaping the decisions of voters on less-visible races. That is, it is more effective if the voters are not familiar with the candidates, than if they know them. After the 1960s, nevertheless, parties have become weaker on its influence to the public. This phenomenon, mostly associated to the influence of mass media, which portrays candidates by personality and not party, has made people less likely to develop a strong party affiliation. The evidence is shown on the number of people describing themselves as independents, and the rise of split-ticket voting. On the other hand, party identification among a large number of the most active voters has grown
expanded in various historical surges to include nearly all adults and to apply to most major offices. Turnout is lower than it was in the late nineteenth century in the US and lower than in other democratic countries, it has continued to decrease not including the recent presidential elections (Greenberg, and Page, 2009).
The involvement of voters in the political activities leads to various modifications in the existing political system of a country. The impact of these modifications on the society and politics depends on the level of co-creation that exists. As observed in the corporate system, we usually observe four levels of co-creation based on the levels of voter awareness and activity:
The study will use this theory, which was first analyzed in 1995 in The British Journal of Political
1. Due to downsizing of merit civil servants, the loss of institutional memory and the “hollowing out” of government.