The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College System
Growing up as kids we were taught the design of our democracy and the constitutional principles. According to the Webster Dictionary a democracy is “ government in which people choose their leaders by voting, and where they are treated equally and have equal rights.” The definition does not capture what the United States feels it's a democracy. The United States is believe in the democratic ideology is, but is best known as a representative republic. In The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001: "Traditionally a republic is distinguished from a true democracy in that the republic operates through a representative assembly chosen by the citizenry, while in a democracy the populace participates directly in governmental affairs. In actual practice,
…show more content…
The reason is because it allows for the possibility that one candidate would win the majority of the popular vote across the nation, and still be able to lose the election if another candidate wins the electoral vote. This has happened on more than one occasion, most recently in 2000 when George W. Bush won the electoral vote and became President despite the fact that his opponent, Al Gore, won the popular vote. The world was shocked when Bush was named winner of the U.S. presidential election, even after more U.S. voters had cast ballots for Gore. How could the U.S. call itself a democracy, yet not select its officials based on majority rule? The U.S. was not established as a pure democracy, but as a republic where voters elect representatives and electors. Whether there has ever been anything close to a pure and total democracy is debatable. There has never been universal suffrage. The result in 2000 election led many people to call for Electoral College reform or a change to a direct popular vote system. No major changes have yet been made to the system; the electoral college remains the “democratic” way we elect the President of the United
The reason is because it allows for the possibility that one candidate would win the majority of the popular vote across the nation, and still be able to lose the election if another candidate wins the electoral vote. This has happened on more than one occasion, most recently in 2000 when George W. Bush won the electoral vote and became President despite the fact that his opponent, Al Gore, won the popular vote. The world was shocked when Bush was named winner of the U.S. presidential election, even after more U.S. voters had cast ballots for Gore. How could the U.S. call itself a democracy, yet not select its officials based on majority rule? The U.S. was not established as a pure democracy, but as a republic where voters elect representatives and electors. Whether there has ever been anything close to a pure and total democracy is debatable. There has never been universal suffrage. The result in 2000 election led many people to call for Electoral College reform or a change to a direct popular vote system. No major changes have yet been made to the system; the electoral college remains the “democratic” way we elect the President of the United