Decision Making Process

As citizens of Canada we have a very deep seeded understanding that we, as the people, have the ultimate decision making power in this nation. If we, as a whole, feel that the government is not looking after our best interests we can, if there are enough of us, stop the government from whatever they are involved in. With this is a foundation of our political system we can, and do, allow the government to make most of our decisions. There are many who would argue that we should always get to choose and decide on every issue, but then again, we have elected officials to do that for us. And, on the other hand we cannot allow the government to do all the decision making without us or we would be living in nothing less than a dictatorship.

Such information illustrates, perhaps, why "Throughout the twentieth century, many nations have changed their voting systems. In some cases, the process was elite driven, with changes imposed by the government or negotiated by party leaders without meaningful citizen input" (Citizen Engagement in Voting System Reform, 2003). In light of these facts we can well see that we, as the public, have elected officials to involve themselves in the decision making process on our behalf. In this we have power, but we actively give much of it away because we, as a people, generally believe that the decision making process should not be wholly in our own individual hands. The following essay examines the two sides of the public in the decision making process, arguing that the middle of the road is best, that we should be involved but essentially leave the officials in charge of voicing our public interests.

Both Sides

First and foremost we have the dictatorship that has been seen throughout history all over the world. In a dictatorship the people have absolutely no say whatsoever. The political ruler, or combined rulers, control all the policies and all the decisions made for a nation. This is, in the opinion of most people, a very poor way to address the needs of the people because the leader, or leaders, are only human and in positions of power will more often than not disregard the true needs of a people.

On the other hand we have the free for all, so to speak, where every person votes on every single issue that comes across the political plate. This is clearly an idyllic situation but not a situation that is feasible for a nation to truly work, especially a nation as large as Canada. There is so much diversity in this nation that one issue may not touch all people and as such they may vote wrongly. For example, someone in Saskatchewan may have absolutely no idea, much less concern, about issues concerning illegal immigrants whereas people in British Columbia or Ontario would likely have a great deal to say about such conditions.

Our nation is comprised of a system that does allow individuals to have their say in many ways. And, the most powerful way of making a stand for any issue is through contacting one's representative. It is the duty of this elected official to pass along the needs and desires of the people. And, in doing so the majority is heard and the majority is often heeded. This method appears to be best in that it saves the individual citizen a great deal of time in relationship to research, education about particular topics, and overall stress. We, as the people,