Electoral System In The Philippines

The Electoral System

Elections: a device for filling an office through choices made by a designated body of people: the electorate; "very heart of the political process"

A. Material Element: externalities involved in the organization and use of things (speeches, campaigns, the act of going to the election booth, writing the name of the candidate in the ballot)

B. Discursive Element: how the material elements "fit into an existing wider pattern of meaning, symbols and understandings" (material elements can also be considered discursive)

Electoral system: the set of rules that govern the conduct of elections

Functions of Elections:

A. "Bottom-Up" or "People Government": elections provide the citizenry with a meaningful way of participating in the government; vertical mechanism channel, from people to gov't

i. Mechanism for leadership selection

ii. An instrument for evaluating and changing governments

iii. A forum for interest articulation and socialization

B. "Top-Down" or "Government People": elections are used by people in the government to legitimize their rule and control over the people

i. An instrument of rule legitimation

ii. A guide to political strategy

iii. An agent of political socialization and integration

Overall, an election is a "structural opportunity" for those in power and those who are not to influence each other

Qualifications and Disqualifications for Suffrage:

A. Citizenship: immigrants, residents or transients usually are not allowed to vote; both natural-born and naturalized citizens have the right to vote

B. Age: 18-21 is the minimum voting age in most states

C. Residence: to guarantee that the voter is familiar with the needs of the voting community

D. Registration: for the purposes of official verification; ensure that voters can vote just once and only in their designated areas

-some states consider gender, property and academic qualification

The right to vote is not granted to: a. aliens b. certified insane persons c. persons convicted of certain crimes d. persons who are under the age of 18 years old

Electoral Systems:

Electoral Systems vary according to:

1. The number of persons elected in each geographical district (or "constituency")

2. The number of votes needed for a candidate to emerge victorious

A. Single-Party Plurality systems: treats the entire state territory as a single constituency, or dividing the state into districts, with voters in each district electing one representative

-to win, a candidate must receive a plurality of votes (more votes than the other candidate, even if it less than 50%); the Philippines is an example

Pro: claimed to facilitate the election of strong and stable governments

Con: produce government with only minority support and mandate when it operates in a multi-party system

B. Single-Member Majoritarian systems: mandates that a candidate's victory is dependent on him garnering an absolute majority of votes (more than 50% of total votes cast)

i. run off system: for a presidential candidate to win on the first ballot, he must get more than 50% votes, otherwise, a run off election is held between the top two or three candidates

Pros: winner will have a strong popular mandate, widens the options of the voting public

Cons: increases the monetary and time cost of elections; compromising with defeated opponents to guarantee support

ii. Alternative vote system (AVS): voters rank the candidates in an order of preference; in the first round, only the no.1 votes are counted and if he receives an absolute majority, he is elected. Otherwise, the candidate with the least no. of 1 votes is eliminates and his votes are given to the candidate ranked no. 2...and so on until a candidate receives absolute majority

C. Multi-Member Proportional systems: allow for a closer linkage between the seat won by a party and the percentage of votes it won in an election

i. List system: structured around parties

Pros: encourage a socially-broad spectrum of candidates; represents a diversity of views and interests

Cons: high potential for the presence of numerous small parties; less stable government

ii. single transferable votes (STV): structured around individual candidates

Pros: allows members of the same party to run against each other and be judged according to their individual merits

Cons: the possibility of party infighting and fracture

D. Mixed system or Additional Member system: the electorate has two votes per ballot, one for a candidate for district representative and the other for a party in the party-list segment f the ballot

-ticket-splitting: possible for a voter to select a candidate as district representative but whose party is different from the one he selects for the party-list

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

A. Elections: national, regional or local in scope

-differentiation is made according to the political office being contested- presidential, congressional, mayoral, barangay-level

-held at fixed intervals and synchronized: Pres and Vice-Pres are contested every 6 years, together with the elections for 12 senators; Lower House- every 3 years, same holds for local level officials

B. Plebiscite: popular vote conducted in order to determine the electorate's view on proposed permanent change to the state's political structure; legally binding (am

endment or revision of the Constitution)

C. Referendum: popular vote of the electorate regarding the soundness