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Elections and Public Policy Electoral systems Electoral systems are the rules that decide how votes are cast Some countries use a first-past-the-post system in which their constituencies are divided into single-member districts where candidates compete for a single representative’s seat This system is also called a plurality system, or a winner take all system This is the case because a winner does not need a majority to win, but simply must get more cotes than anyone else Electoral systems Many countries also use a proportional representation system These systems normally have multi-member districts, meaning there are multiple legislative seats in each district The percentage of votes cast for each party determine the amount of seats that party receives in the legislature Some countries also use a mixed system that combines first-past-thepost and proportional systems A portion of the legislature is determined by single member districts while another portion is determined by proportional voting Types of Elections Election of public officals Referendum These are public votes on particular policy issues Plebiscite This type of election is where members of the government are elected into office This is a direct vote by all members of an electorate on an important public question such as a change in the constitution Initiative An initiative is a vote on policy initiated by the people Public Policy Common policy issues include: Economic performance Economic performance is measured in a variety of ways Gross Domestic Produce (GDP)- This is all the goods and services by produced by a country’s economy in a given year within the nations borders Gross National Product (GNP)- This takes GDP and adds all goods and services created by a country outside of the countries borders GDP Per Capita- This is GDP divided across the population of a country GNP Per Capita- This is GNP divided across the population of a country Purchasing Power Parity- This uses GNP but takes into consideration what people can buy using their income in the local economy Public Policy Social Welfare Some measures of social welfare are literacy rates, distribution of income, life expectancy, and education levels The Gini index measures the amount of economic inequality in a society. The Gini index works on a scale of 0-100. 0 means perfect equality and 100 means complete inequality The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the well-being of a country’s people by factoring in adult literacy, life expectancy, and educational enrollment, as well as GDP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index The Environmental Performance Index ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI http://epi.yale.edu/epi The Corruptions Perceptions Index scores countries on how corrupt their public sectors are seen to be http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/results/ Public Policy Civil liberties, political rights, and political freedom Political rights refer to promotion of equality Civil liberties refer to promotion of freedom Freedom House studies and ranks countries on a scale of 1-7 A score of 1 is extremely free and a score of 7 is extremely not free http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world#.U-odHvldWtY Environment
