The Electoral System of the Federal Republic of Germany—a Study in Representative Government

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1056-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
The Will ◽  
Logical Process

In the development of democracy in the modern world, increasing attention has been paid to the idea of representation. With the growth of large electorates which resulted from the extension of the franchise, it has been a necessary and logical process for thinkers and constitution-makers to devise methods by which the will of the electors can be formulated and translated into public policy. Since the voters are too numerous to gather in the market place, some means must be found to represent their opinions in the control and administration of the state. In the words of John Stuart Mill, “the meaning of representative government is, that the whole people, or some numerous portion of them, exercise through deputies periodically elected by themselves the ultimate controlling power, which, in every constitution, must reside somewhere.”But specifically whom should the deputy represent—individuals, areas, groups, parties, or himself? Must he be popularly elected and, if so, how, and by whom? These and other vital questions have occupied the attention of scholars and statesmen for more than a hundred years. How to organize a system of good democratic representation is today a very live question in several countries, and a really critical question in one or two of them.

Two Models of Public Opinion: Bacon's ‘New Logic’ and Diotima's ‘Tale of Love’ (The Prothero Lecture)

1974 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Beer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Work Done

It is appropriate that an American should address himself to the subject of public opinion. For, in terms of quantity, Americans have made the subject peculiarly their own. They have also invested it with characteristically American concerns. Most of the work done on the subject in the United States is oriented by a certain theoretical approach. This approach is democratic and rationalist. Both aspects create problems. In this paper I wish to play down the democratic problem, viz., how many of the voters are capable of thinking sensibly about public policy, and emphasize rather the difficulties that arise from modern rationalism. Here I take a different tack from most historians of the concept of public opinion, who, taking note of the origin of the term in the mid-eighteenth century, stress its connection with the rise of representative government and democratic theory.

The Birth of Democracy

1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-61
Author(s):  
Christopher Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Modern World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
Common People ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Democratic Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Revolution

The origins of modern democracy are so closely bound up with the history of liberalism that it is a matter of considerable difficulty to disentangle them and to distinguish their distinctive contributions to the common political tradition of modern Western culture. For this question also involves that of the relation between the three revolutions, the English, the American, and the French, which transformed the Europe of the ancien régime, with its absolute monarchies and state churches, into the modern world. Now all these three revolutions were liberal revolutions and all of them were political expressions of the movement of the European enlightenment in its successive phases. But this movement was not originally a democratic one and it was only in the second half of the eighteenth century that the democratic ideal was clearly formulated. On the continent of Europe the revolution of ideas preceded the political and economic revolutions by half a century, and the revolution of ideas was not in any sense of the word a democratic movement; it was the work of a small minority of men of letters who looked to the nobles and the princes of Europe rather than to the common people, and whose ideal of government was a benevolent and enlightened absolutism, like that of Frederick the Great or the Empress Catherine of Russia. There was an immense gulf between the ideas of Voltaire and Turgot, of Diderot and D'Alembert, and the opinions of the average man. The liberalism of the philosophers was a hothouse growth which could not be easily acclimatized to the open air of the fields and the market place.

THEMORAL BASIS OF MODERN LEGAL NIHILISM

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-129
Author(s):  
OLEG A. NESTEROV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Institution ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Moral Foundation ◽  
Moral View ◽  
Moral Subject ◽  
The Will ◽  
Normative Order

This article contains a philosophical study of the moral basis of modern legal nihilism. Usually legal nihilism is understood as a negative or indifferent attitude of individuals or social groups to law as a social institution. The universal and necessary nature of this phenomenon cannot be revealed by giving even the broadest list of active causes of its occurrence and spread. This nature of legal nihilism can be understood through systematic knowledge the idea of the moral spirit.Within the limits of this article, only the nearest spiritual and practical basis of the legal nihilism is revealed. Further consideration of the problem proves that this basis is the freedom of moral subject, the moral view in general, which is an effective principle of the form of the modern world. From a moral point of view only the autono- mous will is truly free and, therefore, really moral. For it is subordinate to a universal law, rooted in the «moral self» of the will itself. Thus the autonomy of the will is recognized as the true and only law of morality, which is identified with real moral order. Recognition of the autonomy of the moral will as the highest principle of the practical spirit made the moral view an indisputable criterion for evaluating any existing moral order. Thus the reflection of the practical experience of modern times laid the moral foundation of legal nihilism. For from this moment on, any external authority, every normative order has come under the initial suspicion of the moral subject, Every objective normative order came to be considered by him as something that has only a conditional significance. All this reality now requires legitimation by the subject of moral freedom, justification before person’s deep belief in what is rational and moral.

Voter Responses to Electoral Complexity: Ticket Splitting, Rational Voters and Representation in the Federal Republic of Germany

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHLEEN BAWN
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Minority Party ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Party Support

In order to understand how electoral rules affect political outcomes, we need to know whether and how voters react to them. The ability of voters to react strategically to electoral rules may be limited in cases where the electoral rules are complex. In this article, I look for evidence of rational reactions to a moderately complex electoral system, that used in the Federal Republic of Germany. By examining district-level election results, I find substantial evidence that voters do react rationally, despite the complexity of the two-vote system. The rational reactions by voters lead to excess first votes for incumbents, for candidates of the major party expected to be in government, to major-party candidates in close races and to major-party candidates in districts with significant minority-party support. The findings support both the general claim that voters can react strategically to complex electoral rules, and more specific claims about the value of the two-vote ballot in Germany.

Who Knows Best? The Creation of the Citizen‐initiated Referendum in New Zealand

2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right

Among Arguments Advanced In Favour Of Direct Democracy, legitimacy pleas loom large. If the rules governing people can only be legitimate when those rules arise from and represent the will of all, then it is commonly argued that people should have the right to vote not just for representatives but on substantive issues of public policy as well. To claim otherwise is regarded as anti-democratic: for example, Bogdanor writes that ‘in the final analysis, the arguments against referendums are arguments against democracy’, while Saward asks, ‘What better way to maximize responsiveness of rulers to the ruled than by fostering a system in which the ruled themselves make the decisions?’

scholarly journals The Canadian Electoral System

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-118
Author(s):  
Dariya Logvinova
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Election System ◽  
Historical Retrospect ◽  
Political Spectrum

The Canadian electoral system is one of the most democratic in the world. Despite the constant challenges of changing reality, Canadaʼs political institutions continue to function as usual, providing, first and foremost, a legal framework that allows civilized forms to address many of the present-day problems. Given the difficult situation in Ukraine, research into the experience of most developed countries, such as Canada, on the formation and functioning of an effective electoral system is as relevant as ever. This article examines the process of origination and formation of the Canadian electoral system in historical retrospect, with a focus on gender and racial components. It also highlighted the peculiarities of the election system in Canada during the election campaign (brief analysis of Canadian electoral law during the last three cycles of parliamentary elections 2008, 2011 and 2015), the advantages and disadvantages of major parties policy, which helped to make conclusions about the activity and effectiveness of change in the Canadian election field. How has the political spectrum of the country changed as a result of each election cycle? Why was the ruling party defeated? And will classic values and traditions be revived? Finding answers to these questions may be of interest to Canadian scholars as well as to researchers of general democratic processes taking place in the modern world. Keywords: electoral system, suffrage, electoral process, gender equality, racial component, electoral system, political party, politician.

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