Political Inequality In Political Participation

The United States was founded on freedom so we are technically supposed to have all terms of political equality. We do have political, social, and economic equality to an extent. Social equality for example, differs in states and with certain people. Things like race riots and killings of colors still happen today like recently in Ferguson. Our social equality has improved from the eighteen hundreds, but for for 2015 we could improve immensely. I do wish we had perfect social equality though, because I believe everyone should actually be treated equal no matter the race, age, or sexual orientation.

The authors’ hypothesis in Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory states that requirements for voters exist to be followed but are difficult to follow, so only little of the electorate meet the requirements. The authors state that every voter should seek to have the requirements of great voters, including having great interest in politics, participating in discussions, and knowing much about politics. The authors declare that politicians have to accept the behavior of the voters. Also, even though the requirements are not met, the authors add that a positive side as the distribution of participation helps create

Political equality gives the same voice of each individual citizen the same power as another person’s voice (SUO, 2016). The government has put into place laws that ensure every citizen has equal opportunity to vote, and have their voice heard in the

When looking how effectively a country represents its citizens, it is important to take into account the manner in which they are represented. The two main types of representation are descriptive and agency representation. Descriptive representation is the concept that those who represent the American people should not only have the same political interest, but should also mirror the demographic makeup of the people. Agency representation, which is what the United States congress looks like, is when the representation does not reflect the demographic, but they speak for their constituents’ interests in congress. The constituents are able to hold the representatives accountable and can choose not to elect them in the next term, so the representatives

One alternative voting procedure that will alleviate the lack of voter participation is proportional representation (PR). Through the implementation of a PR system, the voice of more American voters can be heard-and a more representative government created. The exorbitant amount of wasted votes that exist under today's system will be greatly reduced. The lower threshold of votes needed to elect a candidate under PR will allow smaller groups to elect representative officials more in tune with their political philosophy without the having to constitute the majority of the voting body. This also translates into the vote of each person carrying a greater weight, thus giving that person more of an incentive to become involved in the political process. By providing a greater number of people voting incentives, paired with the increased likelihood that third-party candidates can be voted in, PR insures a more representative government that will better serve the American people.

During the course of the past few decades, the United States of America faced hundreds of issues that impact the nation’s view of leadership. Some people of the United States believe that the issues that face America involves those in office, while others believe that the issue is structural. In the case of America today, there is a momentous structural difficulty in our voting system. Furthermore, the most distinct problem that the United States handles today is gerrymandering. Throughout this essay, it will be made clear that gerrymandering is the leading problem facing America today because it harms the equality of citizens.

First, gerrymandering can dilute an opposing party's voter base. This is done by trying to spread out the candidate’s or party’s, the people who are running for Congress, main voter base by drawing districts that would place the voters in a

America is a land of the free and the home of the brave. In our democracy the citizens choose the leaders, Right? Wrong. In the House of Representatives and state legislatures, a practice called gerrymandering has been prominent since the early 1800’s(Barasch). Gerrymandering nullifies Americans’ right to vote and lessens the leverage of racial minorities’ in the election of our congressman.

2. Gerrymandering is used to describe the creation of an odd shaped electoral district in order to favor the candidates of one party. The problem is the district that breaks the other party’s majority into fragments happens when the party there by denying fair representation. That was the problem

Gerrymandering may prevent the purpose of members being elected on a single-member district basis because districts can be drawn favoring one political party. Gerrymandering is when districts have been drawn so the boundaries of legislative districts in bizarre or unusual shapes to favor one party. Gerrymandering protects incumbents and discourages challengers and it strengthens the majority party while weakening the opposition party

There are obvious flaws in the American political system. However, gerrymandering, which has been undermining American democracy since the nation’s birth, has remained widely unknown. Gerrymandering, which occurs across the United States, is used by Democrats and Republicans to maximize the number of congressional seats they capture. Every ten years, the government conducts a census. Following the census, state legislatures redraw congressional districts to reflect population changes. However, state legislatures are often controlled by a single political party that unfairly redraws congressional districts in order to win more seats in the House of Representatives (Ingraham). Politicians concentrate the voting strength of the opposition

Gerrymandering: to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.

Between 1865 and 1900, many people looked at United States as a country where individual economic opportunities, social equality and political democracy reigned supreme. One cannot say that this people were entirely right or wrong. To some extent, they were right by from different perspectives, the same cannot be said. However, one thing that is for sure is the economic opportunities that were available during this period. All the three aspects, individual economic opportunities, social equality and political democracy were present, although not to everyone.

The system that the Law Commission ultimately recommended was the mixed-member proportional electoral system. In the MMP system a portion of representatives, usually between 50 and 60 percent, are elected from single-member districts, similar to FPTP, with the remainder of seats being elected from party lists, based on the party’s share of the popular vote (Law Commission 22). Each voter gets to cast two votes, one for the party that they support and another for the representative member that they prefer. Party lists can be either closed, where voters are not able to influence the order of candidates, or open, where voters have the ability to influence the ranking of candidates. A threshold for representation is usually set in order to prevent fringe and extremist parties from gaining seats in government. This system is used in Germany, New Zealand, Venezuela and Lesotho (Joseph 113).

Voting equality means that when it is time that a decision on policy be made, each member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote on a policy, with all votes being considered equal. Along with effective participation, voting equality is essential in constituting a democracy. For voting to be effective and equal, not only do citizens have to have reasonable access to voting locations, but they must also physically turn up and vote, something that does not always happen in practise. For instance, in the 2012 Presidential Election, 123,714,407 eligible citizens voted compared to 131,142,144 votes cast in the 2008 election (McDonald, 2012). That means there was a decrease in voter turnout of 3.4 percentage points from 2008 (61.6%) to 2012 (58.2%) (Andrews et al., 2012), prompting questions as to why 7,427,737 less voters participated. When a mere 58% of your country’s population chooses not to vote in the