Criteria for winning an election
There are different criteria for winning an election—majority vote, plurality vote, and proportional vote. Explain each of these criteria, describing strengths and weaknesses of each criteria. Of the three of these, which do you think is the best criteria for winning an election to a national legislative body like U.S. Congress? Explain your answer.
Sample Solution
When electing a candidate for office, different criteria may be used to determine the winner. The most common criteria are majority vote, plurality vote, and proportional vote.
Majority voting requires the winning candidate to receive more votes than any other single candidate – either in an absolute majority of 50% + 1 or a super-majority (e.g., two-thirds) depending on state laws (Kirchheimer, 1966). This type of system helps ensure that winners have broad support from voters as well as prevents candidates from coming into power with only a narrow base of supporters (e.g., 20%). However – this system also has its drawbacks such as potentially leading to gridlock when multiple candidates split the votes which can prevent certain issues from being addressed.
Plurality voting only requires that candidates garner more votes than anyone else within an election regardless if they reach an absolute majority or not (Enikolopov et al., 2011). This is beneficial because it reduces bureaucracy around tallying results and allows elections to move forward even when there are many contenders vying for office at once.
Finally – proportional representation utilizes multi-seat districts where voters cast their ballots choosing between several political parties instead of individual candidates; then each party’s seat count is determined by what percentage of total ballots were cast in their favor (Katz & Wielhouwer, 2006). Strengths include increased representation amongst minority groups while weaknesses include leaving some outcomes up chance due to varying preferences among different voter demographics.
Overall – understanding the various types of criteria used decide who wins elections is essential in order maintain sound democratic systems with fair outcomes across all interested stakeholders.
