Term Paper on "Evaluating the Impact of Electoral Laws on Party Systems"

Term Paper 5 pages (1993 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Electoral Laws on Party Systems

The political party framework in any modern country represents the guarantee for the democratic nature of that system. During the Cold War era, the political parties and political plurality was considered to be a true luxury in countries from the Communist bloc. On the other side, western democracies enjoyed a vivid political life which ensured that the basic human and civil rights are respected and taken into consideration. After the end of the Cold War, the freedom of expression and the rapid increase in the democratic tendencies determined a massive reorientation of the political spectrum towards a more opened society and political spectrum. However, the recent elections from the Russian Federation have stirred up controversy over the validity of the democratic mechanism and discussions have been raised as to the extent in which the elected president, Dimitri Medvedev is in fact the most democratically legitimized future Russian leader.

In order to have a proper image of the extent in which the political parties and the electoral system shapes the democratic environment in a country, it is important to analyze two systems of government. The United Kingdom and Russia are relevant examples in this sense.

The United Kingdom can be considered to be the birth place of the democratic system of rule. This assessment is made primarily from the point-of-view of the historical background the UK has in terms of human and civil rights (Berstein and Milza, 1994). They were the first nation to give the world a structure to be followed in relation to the issue of civil duties, liberties, and rights, as well as to the idea of the mechanism of power sharing inside the administrative structure of the state. In this sense, taking into account the fact that the British Monarchy is one of the longest Royal Houses in the world, the need for a clear separation of powers was crucial for the success of governance. At the same time however, the United Kingdom, unlike the majority of democratic nations, is not based on a constitution as the fundamental law of the state (Berstein and Milza, 1994). This idea considered, it is therefore clear the fact that the state was obliged to have a good control of the administrative system through different legal mechanisms.

On the other side of the comparison, the history of the Russian Federation was a major factor in determining the current situation in the country. In this sense, at the beginning of the 20th century Russia was an empire and the political parties, although they were not excluded from the political life, were in great accordance with the Tsar. In this context, the issue of the dynamic totalitarian system that was imposed during the Tsarist rule was considered to be a Russian adaptation of the notion of democracy (Tucker, 1961). The communist era however, regarded the single party system as the cornerstone of the eventual victory of socialism. Thus, the party system suffered immense restructuring in the sense that all the parties other than the communist one were outlawed. From this historical perspective it is difficult to consider the current party system in Russia as being democratic or recovered from the pressures of the communist system.

The party system in the UK has its historical roots in the Whigs and Tories. However, at this moment, the system is dominated by the Labor Party and the Conservative Party, despite the fact that there are other political forces such as the Liberals (CIA World Fact Book, 2008). The issue that offers a particular identity to the British political life is the presence of the representatives from Northern Ireland, as well as those from the Scottish Parliament. This evolution is a subsequent effect of the continuous clashes that mark the history of the British Isles in relation to Ireland and to the struggle for independence of different areas of the Kingdom.

The Russian Federation, from the point-of-view of the political organization of the legislative branch is somewhat similar to the United Kingdom. In this sense, both states have a bicameral legislative body; in the Russian case, it consists of the Federation Council or Soviet Federatsii and the Duma. The members of the Federation Council are representatives of the regions that make up the Russian Federation and they are appointed by the higher ranks of the respective regions; therefore, they are not directly elected by the people they obviously represent. The representative segment of the legislative body is the Duma, whose members are elected by direct vote. However, the voting system is based on proportional representation and on party lists. Form this point-of-view, taking into consideration the historical background of Russia, it can be said that this system allows for different party members to enter the Duma without being directly voted and chosen by the people. This can be considered even a reminiscence of the Communist Regime in which party activists were designated in different positions as members of the Communist Party. At the same time however, the system that is currently used in Russia in terms of elections offers little possibility for the exercise of a true pluralistic political society because the monopoly is generally held by the United Russia party, as seen in the 2007 electoral statistics. The party had more than 60% of the votes, while the closest adversary had little over 10% of the votes cast (CIA, 2008).

There have been some reform attempts from the Putin Administration that aimed, at least at the official level, to increase the democracy of the political life in Russia. These included "decree that all seats are to be elected by proportional representation (with at least 7% of the vote to qualify for seats) and this system took effect in the election of November 2007" (Darlington, 2007) However, the eventual results pointed out that either the Russian opposition is not strong enough to engage in a comprehensive oppositional force that would eventually benefit democracy, or that the situation in Russia cannot for the moment support a stronger sense of democratization in terms of political representativeness.

In the United Kingdom, the legislative branch is bicameral as well; however, the House of Lords and the House of Commons are established not necessarily by considering the different regions of the country, but rather by considering an ancient tradition. In this sense, the House of Lords represents hereditary peers who are appointed and not elected by the people. The only elections held in the House of Lords are for a new peer. The House of Commons on the other hand is a representative body, taking into account that its members are directly elected by the members of their circumscriptions. From the perspective given by the results of the latest elections in 2005, it is clear that there is a greater sense of democracy in the British political life, as there was no party that won the majority of votes, by comparison to the Russian example. Thus, the Labor party raised 35.2% of the votes, the Conservatives 32.3, while the Liberal Democrats 22% (CIA, 2008). The plurality of the political party life is therefore obvious.

In Russia, taking into account the latest results, the main feature of the ruling party United Russia is oriented towards a nationalistic view, that of a Great Russian national identity. More precisely, the doctrine "outlines a social contract between the Russian leadership and the Russian people and ensures that United Russia continues to enjoy its position as the dominant party in Russian politics. If this social contract is accepted, United Russia will have succeeded in cre-ating an ideological framework for national unity and a road map to national greatness; at the very least, it will have ensured its position as a ruling party until the presidential elections of 2012 or even beyond" (Cohen, 2006). Therefore, the nationalistic theme is the major issue on which Putin's party relies for rallying popular support.

Any change in the political life of the Russian Federation would have to include the reformation of the political class. In the conditions in which the eventual leader of Russia was greatly and openly supported by the incumbent president, a situation which left no real choice for any other presidential candidate, it is clear that the political system needs to be reformed to allow a better sense of transparency. Moreover, the issue of representativeness in Russia is an increased worry because there are parts of the population which are not represented. Thus, despite the existence of the Federal Council, the fact that its members are appointed and not elected prevents the freedom to express one's political choice. In the eventuality of a change people from the Council could change as well and be replaced with younger, more dynamic, and democratic representatives. Also, in terms of the economics of the country, the electoral system and the supremacy of a single party limits the economic possibilities of the state to take other road except the one proposed by the leading party.

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