Political Science 2230E Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Plurality Voting System, Canada Elections Act, Proportional Representation
8 Dec 2016
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Issues underlying electoral system: constituency size, boundaries, and participation. Elections and democracy (cid:498)elections are the defining institutions of modern democracy. (cid:499) (cid:523)richard katz(cid:524) Do elections guarantee democracy: not everyone votes, is there a bias in results. Date chosen by pm when asks governor-general to call an election. Average 41 month term, but can go to 60 according to constitution. Date chosen according to popularity of governing party for maximum electoral benefit. Fixed election dates, as of may 2007 (cid:498)the third monday of october in the fourth calendar year following the previous general election(cid:499) (cid:498)the canada elections act does not prevent a general election from being called at another date(cid:499) So we have fixed election dates, except when the pm wants to hold the election at another time. Country divided into 338 geographic units called constituencies. One candidate from each constituency elected to house of commons. Decision rule: candidate with the most votes wins.
