...Shane O Callaghan Student Number: 109819851 Course: BCOM2 Assess the merits of the political reform process underway in the UK. You should examine the proposed changes under a number of headings including but not limited to the electoral system, the House of Lords, and open government. You must discuss why potential reform should take place, its observable implications and consider comparative examples where the changes already exist. Elections are an integral figure in any countries political system. Elections are also important symbolically in most competitive party systems, legitimizing a country’s political system in the eyes of it citizens. They offer a means of participating in politics, elections also give a feeling that they are exercising choices about who should represent them in the national parliament and about who should form the next government. One common debate of which Party System is best to run a Nation has long been argued by politicians and also which is the electoral system that governs the conduct of elections. With elections, change or reform can always be seen and in one case the United Kingdom is a perfect example, in May 2010 the first united coalition in the Britain since World War 2 and now currently there is an on-going debate for political reform in the UK regarding the current electoral system. Would new government bring closure to the drama of reform in The House of Lords? Or would the unelected house continue to cause up-set? The conservatives aimed...
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...achievements. He led Russia (then Soviet Russia) nearer to real democracy than it had ever been in its centuries-long history. And, with the partners he found in American presidents Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush, he came nearer to ending the decades-long cold war than had anyone before him. Nor is it reasonable to assume that Gorbachev should have completed those undertakings. Few transformational leaders, even "event-making" and "historically fateful" ones, are able to see their missions to completion. This is especially true of leaders of great reformations, whose nature and period generate additional opposition and problems than their initiators (unless they are a Stalin) have power or time to overcome. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, to require a well-known example, a perestroika of American capitalism, continued to unfold and undergo setbacks long after his death. Most such leaders can solely open political doors; leave behind alternative ways that did not exist before, and hope, as Gorbachev usually did publically, that what they began would be "irreversible." How is this historical state of mind to be explained? In post-Soviet Russia, the primary cause was political expediency. Fearing a backlash at home against their role within the Soviet breakup and worried regarding Gorbachev’s continuing popularity abroad, Yeltsin and his inner circle insisted that the new Russian president was the "undoubted father of Russian democracy" and Gorbachev merely a half-hearted...
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...ELECTIONS, ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POST- ELECTION VIOLENCE: PROBLEMS AND WAY FORWARD BY IRABOR PETER ODION DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, IGUEBEN, EDO STATE 07037830536. p24real2000@yahoo.com ABSTRACT In the contemporary world of today, elections have become the most accepted means of changing the government. Although history has shown that it is usually difficult to hold elections that are free and fair. But the importance of a good electoral act cannot be underestimated especially in a developing country like Nigeria where elections were reported to be marred by irregularities by foreign and local observers. It is on this basis that this paper critically observed, even with the electoral reforms carried out, the reasons why there were violence after the 2011 general election and recommended that adopting the basic part of the reforms, devolvement of power at the centre are other plausible way forward to true and sustainable democratic system in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION The electoral system of any given country plays a fundamental role in sustaining and moulding the political behaviour of its citizens (Okolo,2000). The way and manner election is conducted in a country goes a long way to determine the level of poltical culture, political participation and good governance in...
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...plays an important role in covering facts and features of elections. Right from the campaigning to voting to election of a candidate, all news events are covered by the media. Politics is a tough and rough game and each country needs a democratic nominee who is willing to protect the country from all evils. The recent elections of 2008 were indeed the most historical presidential elections in the history of U.S. Illinois Senator Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United State. During the election, there was this first lady, named Hillary Rodham Clinton, who expressed her interest in the presidential election of 2008. Until then, in the history of presidential election in United State, none of the woman had ever won the major party nomination. Well-educated Hillary Clinton had a good experience of public service and managing the Oval office. She emerged as a dedicated and hard working lady from the American women’s perspective. The staff members and policy team of the campaign The initial team of her campaign was supported and run by a group of advisers and political operatives. Mark Penn, Penn, Schoen & Berland were considered as the stategic genius of Clinton’s campaign. The chief operating officer of the campaign was Evelyn S. Lieberman while Howard Wolfson was the spokesperson of the campaign. Many other well-known senior advisers and subject specialist formed the focus group of the campaign. Ann Lewis was campaign’s senior adviser and Cheryl Mills was campaign’s...
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...the Republican Party Compared to all the excitement in 2008, there was very little enthusiasm four years later for Obama’s re-election. Yet on the other side, there was almost a sense of disappointment for Romney’s candidacy. During the mid-term elections, amidst the hype of the Tea Party and Republican takeover of Congress, it seemed like the presidential race would prove to be a thrilling ride, but the election in 2012 was disappointingly routine. However, events surrounding the nomination process and leading up to the election have set the stage for the possibility of a realigning election in the near future. In the days following the election, it was repeated over and over that Mitt Romney’s loss to President Obama signaled the end is nearing for the Republican party and a new period of Democratic dominance was coming. The same happened in 2008 with the election of Obama. Enthusiasm for the Democratic party was high in the early stages of Obama’s first term, however hope for the future of the GOP came with the rise of the Tea Party. Beginning in small town hall meetings across the country, the Conservative movement rapidly gained momentum in opposition to Obamacare. Town hall protesters quickly organized into a nation-wide grassroots movement that resulted in the GOP retaking the House in the midterm elections. At that point, it appeared that the progressive movement was possibly finished. With Obama’s re-election, it is clear that the Democratic Party is still strongly...
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...the New Hampshire primary in grass roots politics, Dante Scala in Stormy Weather asserts that the first presidential primaries either give or take away a candidate’s momentum with the influence of the media fishbowl. Reading number sixty-seven No Place for Amateurs by Dennis Johnson focuses on the effect of political consultants on a candidate’s campaign for election. Discussing negative campaigning, reading sixty-eight Going Dirty by David Mark gives detail on political marketing, 527 groups and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform of 2002. Reading number sixty-nine Why we vote by David Campbell highlights the different reasons why people vote. Finally, reading number seventy How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser discusses the landmarks leading up to the 2008 election and the possibility of an alignment of the democrats. In Stormy Weather by Dante Scala the author describes the first stage of the election process as the exhibition season and the second stage as the media fishbowl. Scala describes the exhibition season as “the period that extends from the morning after a general presidential election, until the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire more than three years later” (Scala, p. 491). This is the time where candidates create campaign themes in order to decide which constituencies are receptive of their ideals. “Key tasks include fundraising; the early stages of organization building in various primary states; and seeking the...
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...suggests, several attempts have been made over the last 50 years to regulate the financing of campaigns, which has been criticised for damaging the election process of democracy in the USA for being too expensive and dominant. Earliest reforms in the 1970s include the 1971 Federal Election Act, and famously, the 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act, known by many now as FECA. These congressional acts limited the ability of candidates to spend their own money on campaigns, and limited PAC donations to $5,000 per candidate through the creation of the Federal Election Commission. They also introduced the ‘matching funds system’ to this effect. Far more recent reforms have also taken place to further restrict such donations to candidate campaigning, such as the 2002 Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as ‘McCain-Feingold’ capping the soft money spending by parties and welfare/charity organisations which had increased since the 1970s. This is when money is not directly donated to the candidate and cannot be used for self promotion. The 2002 Act ruled that such organisations can spend up to 49% of their income on parties and campaigns, yet this spending remains undisclosed, allowing anonymity. This highlights one of the main reasons why such reforms have failed to rectify the issues of campaign financing that remains in contemporary elections – many so-called ‘legal loopholes’ have been found in these congressional acts which have allowed soft money and independent expenditures and...
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...Political Communication 219708 Assignment One Obama Uses Popular Culture and Traditional Theory to Win the American Election Today‟s politician faces an array of challenges in interacting with media outlets and creating publicity. Such as the advent of the Internet, the relentless 24 hour news broadcast, the lack of party loyalty by members of the public and the merging of political ideology between left and right wing politics. In this essay I will show why Barack Obama‟s appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in the build up to the 2008 election and subsequent electioneering on the „Smackdown Your Vote‟ website (owned by the WWE), and his status updates on Facebook, were a text book model of political campaigning for the modern day celebrity politician catering for popular culture. Campaigning in this manner also removed some of the risks associated in dealing with generic media outlets and reached a national (and international) audience. Although a critic could dispute that this truly represents the “re-feudalism” or the Americanization (Habermus, S. 1990 as cited in McNair 2004) of politics perfectly, I will argue that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Obama gained a significant amount of voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty five which ultimately lead to his election success. Finally, I will briefly look at another type of celebrity politician, the celebrity who is not running for office or an elected representative, but a celebrity with a...
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...Constitutional Committee in 1787 resulted in an electoral system whereby the election of the president, every 4 years, is determined by members of the electoral college and not the popular vote. Each state receives a number of electoral college votes (number of state congress members) and this is amended every 10 years to reflect changes in state populations. However, there is a growing movement to abolish and replace the current Presidential electoral system with a more democratic system that more accurately reflects the popular vote. Firstly, to understand why the electoral college became the chosen system, it is important to understand the issues faced by the Constitutional committee. James Madison wrote at the time "There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections." Therefore, whilst many members acknowledged that a nationwide popular vote would be ideal, state conflict over the rights of slaves, which divided the nation, was the ultimate deciding factor in the choice of electoral system. However, there were other highly influential factors in the choice. Not least of which was the idea of 'mobocracy'-a term used by Alexander Hamilton and supported...
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...target party leaders and interest groups. This is the time for the candidates to learn that a single phrase could end the campaign or guarantee a defeat. The media take much less notice of mistakes at this time than in the general election campaign. A danger not always heeded by candidates during the nomination campaign is that a candidate can move too far left or right and appear too extreme to the electorate. If a candidate tries too hard to appeal to the interests of party elites, they jeopardize their chances of winning the election. An example of this is the election of 1964 when Barry Goldwater went too far right and lost the presidential election. 2. After earning the party’s nomination, candidates embark on the general election campaign, or the phase of a political campaign aimed at winning election to office. Unlike the nomination campaign, where candidates must run against each other, during the general election campaign, candidates in partisan elections run against nominees from other political parties. All eligible voters, regardless of political party, have the opportunity to vote. For this reason, candidates are more likely to move their positions on political issues toward the ideological center. The length of the general election campaign varies from state to state. 3. Paid staff, political consultants, and volunteers work behind the scenes to support the candidate. Collectively, they plan strategy, conduct polls, write speeches, craft the campaign’s message...
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...summer of an election year. The main task is to select the party’s presidential nominee, even that in all recent contests one candidate has already emerged from the nomination process with a clear majority of delegates and wins the nomination on the first ballot. To get the nomination, a candidate needs the support of a majority of the delegates, and if no candidate receives a majority after the first round of voting at the convention, the voting has to continue until someone does. After the delegates nominate a presidential candidate, he chooses a vice-presidential nominee, who has to be ratified by the delegates. The normal performance of the nominations used to have a pattern, in which there is a frontrunner that is leader in the early public opinion polls and has raised a large amount of money, and goes on to win the nomination. In a less common scenario, the leader falters and is replaced by another candidate, and in third place it could happen that in the political party, there is no clear frontrunner but in fact, a number of more contenders vying for the nomination. In another variant, it happens that two strong candidates may battle it out over the entire course of the presidential primaries and caucuses. The final purpose of a convention is to attract public attention, to make it a...
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...their governing systems can range from Western European nations to China and the former Soviet Union to autocracies in the Middle East and Latin America. Democratic systems can be minimalist democracies in which the citizens mainly do not have the right to vote but enjoy few other freedoms. Other are the democracies that would expand the conception of democracy to full participation in all civic institutions. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “recognition of the dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”. Speaking of the Eastern Europe, one can trace the development from minimalist democracy to dictatorships. The most popular example of dictatorship in the Eastern Europe is Belarus. The US Department of State repeatedly criticized the regime enacted by Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has been steadily consolidating his power through authoritarian means. Belarus has been called “ the last remaining dictatorship in the heart of Europe” by the US Secretary of State. The UN Human Rights Council 2007 Report notes that “the situation of human rights in Belarus constantly deteriorated” ( Severin, 2007, p.7 ). Is Belarus the only dictatorship in the Eastern Europe? Russia seems to have changed radically in the last few years....
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...legislation he’s gotten passed into law since his election in 2008, a healthcare bill, commonly referred to as Obamacare. The president, on the other hand, is saying he won’t pay a ransom to Congress in order for them to reopen the federal government. He’s making his case against his opponents in congress by siting his reelection as vindication that Americans overwhelmingly want this legislation to move forward. The two sides are using an overwhelming amount of social media to air their views and ideology to the American public. While the Republicans spread doubt and fear about the bill, the democrats, conversely, overselling the probable effectiveness of Obamacare. With all this information swirling around the national discussion it is difficult to know exactly what’s true about the bill and what isn’t. Perhaps the most important consequence of this political battle is that currently 500,000 government workers are out of work and not being paid while this shut down plays itself out. This furlough is not only hurting those workers and their families but also proving to have negative implications for the national economy and world stock indexes as uneasiness about the future increases. This paper will discuss the major events of the healthcare debate over the past 20 years that have brought us to this point of unprecedented government gridlock. The modern healthcare debate started in the early nineties with the presidential election of Bill Clinton....
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...Third parties in the United States do not win, but they tend to keep elections interesting. Although third parties bring in votes for themselves, a majority of them have extreme views on issues. These types of views cannot put a party at the top of a nation that mainly consists of moderate individuals. America has one of the most advanced democracies and as a result has developed the two party system. The reason why a two-party system overpowers a three-party system is because, ideally, the constitution only has two sides to it, the opposing and the supporting. There are numerous third parties, the most successful one being the Libertarian party. While the United States is largely a two party system, third parties have been around for hundreds...
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...ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study Structured election process is one of the indicators of stability in Nigeria’s democracy. Elections in Nigeria continue to elicit more than casual interest by Nigerian scholars due to the fact that despite the appreciation that only credible election can consolidate and sustain the country’s nascent democracy, over the years, Nigeria continues to witness with growing disappointments and apprehension inability to conduct peaceful, free and fair, open elections whose results are widely accepted and respected across the country (Ekweremadu, 2011). All the elections that have ever been conducted in Nigeria since independence have generated increasingly bitter controversies and grievances on a national scale because of the twin problems of mass violence and fraud that have become central elements of the history of elections and of the electoral process in the country (Gberie, 2011). Despite the marked improvement in the conduct of the 2011 elections, the process was not free from malpractices and violence (National Democratic Institute, 2012). Thus over the years, electoral processes in the history of Nigeria’s democratic governance have continued to be marred by extraordinary display of rigging, dodgy, “do or die” affair, ballot snatching at gun points, violence and acrimony, thuggery, boycotts, threats and criminal manipulations of voters' list, brazen falsification of election results, the use of security agencies against political...
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