Question

1. what are the consequences of the united states having a two party system rather than a multi party system? what aspects of the U.S political system explain why the US has two party system?

2. Who determines ballotg acces in the American states? why this a relavent concern and what are the consequances?

3. on the heals of the 2016 presidential election, we are seeing much discussion of the role internet and socail media in voter education. what are the consequances of free online speech and how might the internet comprmise democratic processes and accountability?

Answer 1

1. Consequences of Two party system in US

Two party system limits competition, prevents local voices because a person may win a district election but he won't be able to be part of the senate house. It also brings in some kind of tyranny because only the major two parties who are spread across the country will be able to gain majority country wide which is very unethical and injust system.

Two party system thrives on the principle that only two parties enter the senate house, the ruling party ( majority) and the opposition party ( minority). The basic rule here is that 'winner takes all'. The voting system thrives on plurality and not on proportional distribution. This means anyone who has the highest number of voting will become the winner and it doesn't require someone to have more than 50%. So only the big parties stand a chance and people know that only two of these big parties have an opportunity to be chosen and the smaller and local parties will never be able to win the election. For example, if a small party wins 5% of the seats, it won't get a proportional distribution of 5% because it's about the first two big numbers.

2. According to US Elections clause in article 1, section 4, each state in the united state has the authority to regulate the time, place and manner of federal elections in the state. One major draw back of this system is that the ruling party in the state may enact restrictive ballot access to influence election outcomes to make sure that their candidate gets elected.

3. 2016 Presidential election

2016 presidential election brought a paradigm shift in how the opinion polls will become false in the eyes of the true voters who wished for a chance. One of the major shift happening right now in the world is that the young voters are all accessible through social media in internet. So the political campaigns are designed in such a way that they are more appealing on the internet. Digital voter education is however, has become the need of the hour. It gives enough information to the prospective voters about their candidates and their ideaologies.

One important consequence is that anyone can record a video from any country about anything that happens in the world. The person may be sitting in his room in his house and propogate anything he/or she likes. People might even like to vote from home through the internet. It's only a change that might happen very soon and the world has already seen enough change in the democratic process and accountability, ofcourse, internet is going to increase the awareness among the voters and it is going to be the deciding factor in the upcoming elections too.

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