Advantages And Disadvantages Of Political Participation

Decent Essays
Political participation takes many forms. From being active in one’s political party, to joining an interest group, to simply putting your ballot in to be counted; all of these forms of participation in government aids in democracy. Political leadership often faces an uphill battle in shaping policy, as they are tasked with trying to interpret public opinions into policy outcomes which relies heavily on political participation and voting. For example, in Germany many of these policy makers are elected directly by the people and there are some elected by parties. This allows for a wider range of influence by voters as they can vote for a political party which holds many of the same ideas as them, as well as vote for a specific candidate to represent …show more content…
These sources of political participation in Germany have a unique system which encourages participation in government in many forms such as party membership, institutionalized interest groups, and making conscious voting choices. These structural forms of political participation allow voters to have a greater voice in policy making as well as promote issues that are important to the public. Although Germans have many outlets of governmental participation through elections, interest groups, and parties, there are some disadvantages to their forms of political and interest representation.
Political participation in the form of voting is extremely popular in Germany as “voting affords the German citizen the major formal means of influence in the policy making process” Germany uses a complex electoral system called mixed member proportional, which is a mixture of pure proportional representation and single district representation. This allows for having both personal representation in the lower house of parliament, the Bundesrat, while having proportional representation via parties in the upper house,

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Responsible government and separation of powers are the two most widespread forms of democracy in the modern world. Responsible government was born in England and is now a regime that we have in Canada. First, it emerged to give more independence to the colonies, but later became fully independent from the Crown, except Crown 's formal duties. USA, on another hand is build on principle of separation of powers, to ensure freedom from England, tyranny or any kind of usurpation of power. In this paper I will argue that separation of powers is more democratic than responsible government, because in separation of powers model citizens have more influence on their government through electing most of the officials and it is easier to maintain democratic…

    • 1725 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bostonistan Case Study

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages

    1. Imagine you are a political scientist from India, the U.K., Germany, or Brazil (choose one). You are asked to help the newly democratic country of “Bostonistan” design a new constitution. Bostonistan has a history of conflict among religious groups, which are dispersed throughout the country—not every religious group lives in its own region.…

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Political participation is crucial for guaranteeing the legitimacy of a democratic system of government. With citizens abstaining, more elected bodies lose their accountability. For example: a European parliament in 2004 had a turnout rate of 45.6 percent. With numbers like this, a democratic leader cannot speak for a popular or majority will, as the turnout was not even above 50 percent. One has to conclude that high turnout proportions are an absolute necessity for making any democracy claiming legitimacy (Engelen, 2007, 25).…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sectionalism In Canada

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The move to actualize some type of electoral change is politically divisive. Since change stands to influence the quantity of seats each party wins in an election, the move to some system can seemingly profit at least one parties above others. Now and again, proposition have surfaced for changes to Canada's electoral system. More often than not, these include some variation of proportional representation, albeit some have contended for a particular ballot to guarantee that applicants chose have the support of a larger part of voters. At the government level, these have dependably been rejected.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Critique of Fiorina’s “The Decline of Collective Responsibility in American Politics” In the early 1980s, political scientists were studying the changing status of American political parties (Fiorina 1981). During this time, Morris P. Fiorina wrote his essay to address these findings, most notably what he believes to be the decline of political parties. Fiorina concludes that strong political parties provide electoral accountability and discipline in government and keep the system afloat. Without it, the consequences are dire.…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people are discontent with the United States government. Ironically, the very same peoples’ actions often contradict their extensive complaints. An innumerable number tend to sit around and whine that things could be better while playing the role of spectators. They act as though they are watching a stage performance; they clap when the show is going well, and boo when it is not to their satisfaction, instead of participating in the show to add improvements. Peaceful resistance is frequently overlooked, but can prompt favorable changes in a society.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Also, is there a link between participation mechanisms, participant capacity, and administrative responsiveness? One of the main things that his research is driven by is his fascination in Government-Mandated Citizen Participation. The modern origins of mandated participation in the United States reach back to the mid-twentieth century. This was a important time within the development of direct citizen inclusion in policy making and implementation. Research suggests that some forms of participation are more helpful to public empowerment than others, although widespread agreements on these outcomes have been intangible (Buckwalter 574).…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Paper Assignment Democracy is, obviously, one of the most commonly used concepts in modern society; but despite the frequent use, there is no universally agreed interpretation of the notion. The validity of this claim becomes particularly noticeable when comparing the interpretations of Thomas Jefferson and Carl Schmitt. This comparison is conducted with an aim to choose the most plausible approach to democracy which could be implemented in our contemporary U.S. society. It’s argued that although both Jefferson and Schmitt criticized their contemporaries for apathy in political participation, they suggested different ways through which Americans could contribute to building a democratic society.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Putnam states, “Researchers in fields as education, urban poverty, unemployment, the control of crime and drug abuse, and even health have discovered that successful outcomes are more likely in civically engaged communities” (Putnam 1). In the information found by Hamilton he shows there is a clear correlation between civic engagement and the successful outcomes that correspond. Communities or countries that have high numbers of active citizens will benefit since the actual majority will voice out its opinions which can lead to the election of suitable candidates. Overall, civic engagement is important for the country to reach its full potential and…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Australia is one of the few developed nations which currently retains a compulsory voting system. As Australia is a liberal democratic nation there has been debate surrounding the freedom of choice to vote and the current compulsory voting system. A democratic system is defined as a system of government where the power lies within the people. The people have the ability to elect their representatives into Parliament through the process of regular elections. Though there may be few arguments against compulsory voting, there are numerous arguments in favour of compulsory voting.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Votes are then cast to each constituency with a single ballot (marked by an X) for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes returns to or takes a seat in office. Consequently, the party with the majority of seats, combined from all the constituencies, forms the governments (Norris, 1997, p. 301). This “winner takes all” nature of the system boosts the presence of the leading party in legislation, while remaining parties receive mere rewards (Norris, 1997, p. 301). Moreover, it exaggerates the share of seats of the leading party and handicaps minor parties, chiefly those…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The amount of apathy for politics in America is increasing because of social trends in the younger generations; such as anarchy which is often called being a “hipster”. This is folly because many young people believe what the government does, does not affect them , or the government is corrupt to undermine the government by not voting however this is not true “by not voting people relinquish more of their rights to the government”(Colb). Many voters also do not understand their rights as a voter, if the voter does not like any candidate on the ballad they have the right to write in a name of whoever that meets the qualifications of the job on the ballad, according to twelfth amendment. The correlation between voter participation and overall satisfaction share a direct correlation each other. Since the decrease of voter participation in America satisfaction rates have drastically plummeted tremendously since the late 1980s.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the economic model of voting, voters are more inclined and entitled to protect their benefits, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, in the case of the elderly. This makes sense, since a lot of elderly voters receive benefits from the federal government such as those listed before. Therefore, the elderly are most likely to cast their ballots and also have the best voter turnout of any age group in the United States. Benefits such as Medicare and Social Security are granted based on age, which creates a separate group of citizens who are advocates for their own benefits through voting. In return, these older citizens would be more motivated to vote and thus, there would be more mobilization.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Voting is one of the core driving points behind our nation's democracy. Many of the key moments in our nation's history revolve around this, including: The creation of 19th Amendment (Women's Suffrage), and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Civil Rights). It is often wasted by many Americans today, and this absolutely needs to be amended. Former President Barack Obama endorsed the idea himself, believing it to be be much needed for our country (Weller). There is a need for change, this change is to enact a form of Compulsory Voting.…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    • Bellamy, R., & Castiglione, D. (2000). The uses of democracy: reflections on the European democratic deficit. In E. O. Eriksen, & J. E. Fossum (Eds.), Democracy in the European Union: Integration through deliberation? (pp. 65-84). London: Routledge.…

    • 2829 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Great Essays