POL214Y5 Chapter Notes - Chapter Cross: Proportional Representation, Limited Voting, Visible Minority
Document Summary
Greatest strength lies in political party"s recognition of regional interests. Weakness is absence of any institutional opportunity for activists to exert meaningful i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)e o(cid:448)er the parties" poli(cid:272)y directions. Parties do(cid:374)"t re(cid:272)ruit fe(cid:373)ale (cid:272)a(cid:374)didates i(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)stitue(cid:374)(cid:272)ies (cid:449)here they are (cid:373)ost competitive. Selecting leaders, parliamentary candidates, and elections have the highest rates of participation and party membership levels: after these events, membership dramatically decreases to usual low levels. Although many people participate, the overall participations rates (potential partisans available for involvement in party leadership race=number of voters who supported that party) is very low. Us pri(cid:373)aries a(cid:374)d (cid:272)au(cid:272)us" ha(cid:448)e higher parti(cid:272)ipatio(cid:374) rates (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause they are usually less restrictive and more accessible than canadian leadership nominations. Parties need to do a much better job of reaching out to traditionally under-represented groups such as women and visible minorities and encourage them to participate both at constituency level and highest levels of internal party affairs.
