What is plurality rule? How does plurality rule discriminate against minorities?

What will be an ideal response?


Under plurality rule, the candidate who receives the largest share of the votes in the electoral district wins the seat, even if that share is less than a majority of 50 percent +1 of the votes. Because only one seat is at stake in each electoral district in such elections, plurality rule tends to generate distortions between the percentage of votes received and the percentage of seats received: the best-performing party at a given election tends to do "better" than its vote percentage might suggest, while smaller parties are penalized and do "worse" than their vote percentage might suggest. Given this, plurality rule tends to manufacture majority control of the legislature, even if the best-performing party does not win an actual majority of all the votes. In general, the plurality system tends to discriminate against smaller parties.

Political Science

You might also like to view...

A crisis of political representation and France's party system is indicated by all of the following EXCEPT

a. increasingly unstable voting patterns. b. challenge of fringe parties like the Front National to mainstream parties. c. declining voter turnout. d. the rise of independent candidates for president. e. scandals involving prominent politicians.

Political Science

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were designed to violate which amendment to the Constitution?

a. The Fourth Amendment b. The Second Amendment c. The First Amendment d. The Fourteenth Amendment e. The Tenth Amendment

Political Science

Which is likely the most significant obstacle to using a strategy such as unilateral pacifism or nonviolence, given the context of the Prisoner’s Dilemma?

A) National interests
B) Social injustice
C) Lack of communication
D) Lack of trust

Political Science

Answer the following statement(s) true (T) or false (F)

1. The minimum rationality test is used by courts to determine whether a law can discriminate on the basis of gender. 2. Colorado was the first state to grant women the right to vote. 3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was designed to reduce or eliminate racial discrimination in public accommodations. 4. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited individuals from owning slaves. 5. Generally speaking, Cuban Americans, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans share exactly the same issues and concerns.

Political Science