The electoral system in the United States of America
The current electoral system in the United States of America
According to the Constitution, the president is elected indirectly by the citizens through the Electoral College. In this system, a state has a fixed number of electors based on its number of congress representatives (Felicetti, 2014). The electors are required to cast their votes to choose the president. In the current hypothetical situation, the country has 538 electoral votes (Wlezien, 2015). From the electoral votes, the candidate that receives more than half of votes is declared the president. The proposed system recommends that the country adopts the democratic system of governance. The system supports the majority rule in which the candidate who gets the most popular votes is announced as the president.
A comparison between the current system and the proposed electoral system
In recent years, a debate has arisen over, which is the best electoral system for the country. Different arguments have since emerged during the course. We must, therefore, analyze the pros and cons of each of the methods to determine which is more superior. One of the bases for discrediting the Electoral College system is that over the years, the system appears to ignore the will of people (Orriols, 2010). For instance, in the 21st century, two candidates with the highest number of casted votes have lost the elections. This has happened after each of them winning the popular votes but later on losing in the Electoral College elections. In this system, many argue that the citizens have been deprived of their rights to elect their leaders. From the same argument, many say that the Electoral College system appears to disadvantage some states. From the two hypothetical cases in the 21st century, the presidential elections were decided by a handful of states. From this, many argue that the Electoral College system favors the republicans at the expense of the democrats. In contrast, in the democratic order, the citizens exercise their democratic right directly. In this system, the citizens express their views directly in the absence of intermediaries as compared to the case of the Electoral College system. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
From the above deductions, I, therefore, advocate for the democratic electoral system. This is because the system not only always the citizens to choose their leaders but also allows them to participate in the leadership process. In the democratic order, the citizens are in the capacity to influence government policies through their elected leaders (Virgin, 2017). Also, in this system, the voters have the power to replace political parties and their leaders based on popular support. The system is also a crucial step in achieving equality in the country. In this system, it is easier to air out the views of the marginalized and oppressed groups in the country. Finally, not only does this system allow its citizens to have an equal voice, but it is more flexible as compared to the current Electoral College system.
References
Orriols, L. (2010). Social spending, partisan bias, and vote choice. Evidence from the US. Electoral Studies, 29(1), 54-65.
Wlezien, C. (2015). The myopic voter? The economy and US presidential elections. Electoral Studies, 39, 195-204.
Virgin, S. (2017). Competing loyalties in electoral reform: An analysis of the US electoral college. Electoral Studies, 49, 38-48.
Felicetti, A. (2014). Citizen Forums in the Deliberative System. Democratic Theory, 1(2).