Student Name: Nora Casey
Student Number: 16164091
Module Name: Comparative European Politics
Module Code: PO4023
Lecturer: Rory Costello
Introduction:
The majority of European states are run in accordance with the principles of parliamentary government. These principles consist of a set of institutions and behaviour patterns that give an important task to political parties. A parliamentary election is an election to select the members of a national parliament . Elections are essential for representative governments in Europe.
The two European countries that I have selected for my project are Spain and Denmark.
Denmark along with four other countries; Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland is part of the Nordic region. …show more content…
Spain was one of Europe’s youngest democracies before the collapse of communist rule in eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 ( Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver, Peter Mair, 2011). Denmark has experienced over 150 years of democracy while Spain only transitioned to democracy in 1975. The countries share many similarities; for example both are parliamentary systems, both are a constitutional monarchy, both have a Proportional Representation voting system. In contrast they share some significant differences; Denmark is a unitary state (including Faroe Islands and Greenland) while Spain looks more federal because of its territorial distribution ( Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands), Spain is in the euro while Denmark has its own currency the Danish Krone. These are only a handful of reasons why Spain and Denmark make an interesting …show more content…
Denmark has a Proportional Representation voting system as mentioned above. The goal of this system is to represent the range of views in the electorate. Proportionality means that the seats won reflects the national vote shares. The parliamentary Elections Act, the Constitutional Act and other regulations by the minister in this area is the law governing elections to the Folketing. The system of proportional representation in Denmark is an open list system. The list system typically achieves a very high degree of proportionality however there are some disadvantages too one, in that it may focus on parties more so than
Student Number: 16164091
Module Name: Comparative European Politics
Module Code: PO4023
Lecturer: Rory Costello
Introduction:
The majority of European states are run in accordance with the principles of parliamentary government. These principles consist of a set of institutions and behaviour patterns that give an important task to political parties. A parliamentary election is an election to select the members of a national parliament . Elections are essential for representative governments in Europe.
The two European countries that I have selected for my project are Spain and Denmark.
Denmark along with four other countries; Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland is part of the Nordic region. …show more content…
Spain was one of Europe’s youngest democracies before the collapse of communist rule in eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 ( Michael Gallagher, Michael Laver, Peter Mair, 2011). Denmark has experienced over 150 years of democracy while Spain only transitioned to democracy in 1975. The countries share many similarities; for example both are parliamentary systems, both are a constitutional monarchy, both have a Proportional Representation voting system. In contrast they share some significant differences; Denmark is a unitary state (including Faroe Islands and Greenland) while Spain looks more federal because of its territorial distribution ( Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands), Spain is in the euro while Denmark has its own currency the Danish Krone. These are only a handful of reasons why Spain and Denmark make an interesting …show more content…
Denmark has a Proportional Representation voting system as mentioned above. The goal of this system is to represent the range of views in the electorate. Proportionality means that the seats won reflects the national vote shares. The parliamentary Elections Act, the Constitutional Act and other regulations by the minister in this area is the law governing elections to the Folketing. The system of proportional representation in Denmark is an open list system. The list system typically achieves a very high degree of proportionality however there are some disadvantages too one, in that it may focus on parties more so than