First past the post is the oldest voting system in the world, and at first glance it seems simple, efficient and fair, with the candidate that gets the most votes winning. However, this is far from the truth. This archaic and exploitable system undermines citizens’ right to have their voice heard in government and breeds gridlocked and inefficient government. Citizens must realize that the outdated and unfair first past the post voting system must be replaced with a more proportionally representative system to allow all citizens to have their voices heard equally and protect the fundamental principles of democracy.
In a pure majoritarian system, first past the post specifically, every citizen is given a ballot where they mark one choice, all …show more content…
Among these many boons is an overall increase in voter participation. In the United States, voter participation has been on the decline and trails almost all developed nations, many of which utilize PR systems (Pew graph). While the United States has the prerequisite population and diversity of opinion for a healthy democracy, decades of a stiff two-party system and lack of vote impact have rendered much of the populace apathetic towards politics. A ranked vote system would allow for the entrance of tertiary parties and independents into the political scene, reinvigorating American democracy with new opinions and points of view. Many voters have lamented the seeming necessity for negative campaigning in elections. Those who wish to keep FPTP state that PR’s “complexity could encourage negative campaigning” (Cameron np). However, the type of campaigning in Australia that Cameron references is more of a how-to than negative campaigning, and in fact, a FPTP system encourages negative campaigning by promoting a two-party system where it is more beneficial to berate the opposition’s platform than support your own. Under PR it is more beneficial to attempt to win voters over to your side than deter them from others and gain more first and second choice votes. The adoption of PR systems must be considered in ailing democracies, as the systems promote …show more content…
For decades, alternative voting systems have been available which eliminate the many problems such as degradation to a two-party system and low voter participation that plague FPTP systems. It is imperative that one of these greatly improved alternatives be adopted and implemented to revitalize and preserve democracy bringing in new opinions and improvements, and ousting the old problems and
In a pure majoritarian system, first past the post specifically, every citizen is given a ballot where they mark one choice, all …show more content…
Among these many boons is an overall increase in voter participation. In the United States, voter participation has been on the decline and trails almost all developed nations, many of which utilize PR systems (Pew graph). While the United States has the prerequisite population and diversity of opinion for a healthy democracy, decades of a stiff two-party system and lack of vote impact have rendered much of the populace apathetic towards politics. A ranked vote system would allow for the entrance of tertiary parties and independents into the political scene, reinvigorating American democracy with new opinions and points of view. Many voters have lamented the seeming necessity for negative campaigning in elections. Those who wish to keep FPTP state that PR’s “complexity could encourage negative campaigning” (Cameron np). However, the type of campaigning in Australia that Cameron references is more of a how-to than negative campaigning, and in fact, a FPTP system encourages negative campaigning by promoting a two-party system where it is more beneficial to berate the opposition’s platform than support your own. Under PR it is more beneficial to attempt to win voters over to your side than deter them from others and gain more first and second choice votes. The adoption of PR systems must be considered in ailing democracies, as the systems promote …show more content…
For decades, alternative voting systems have been available which eliminate the many problems such as degradation to a two-party system and low voter participation that plague FPTP systems. It is imperative that one of these greatly improved alternatives be adopted and implemented to revitalize and preserve democracy bringing in new opinions and improvements, and ousting the old problems and