Showing posts with label political science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political science. Show all posts

Monday, November 5, 2012

Monday, November 05, 2012 - ,, 5 comments

Election Eve

It's the night before the big day in the United States, Election Day. I felt the Political Scientist in me trying to break out the last couple of weeks. I found myself less interested in the actual outcome of the election than by the possibility that there would be a tie in the Electoral College, and the election results would be decided by the sitting U.S. Congress.

You may wonder why we even have such a thing as an Electoral College. Why don't we simply have majority rule? Bottom line is that it's the same reason that we have two senators from each state regardless of population, and we have the Bill of Rights. It is to ensure that "majority rule" does not become "mob rule." These things protect minority groups and give them voice.

In the case of the Electoral College, it gives states with lower populations a little more power. With a country as large as the United States, if we went with a strict majority rule, presidential elections could be decided exclusively by the people of New York, California, and Texas. This would effectively disenfranchise the rest of the population from the presidential election. There's certainly no way that New Hampshire or Iowa could seen as important swing states. The truth is that the results of the Electoral College are usually the same as the popular vote, so it usually isn't an issue. But, I'll concede that no system is perfect.

One of the weirder things is that if no one wins the Electoral College, the election will be decided by Congress. The House of Representatives chooses the president, and the Senate chooses the vice-president. If you think that it's crazy watching all the political commentators trying to pick the winner now, just imagine if the election went to the Congress!

The possibilities are intriguing. Could the House pick Mitt Romney and the Senate pick Joe Biden? It's almost too much. Then I stopped. I stopped and considered the chaos that would ensue. No, no, no. No ties, please. Let's not test it.

I've picked my candidate. Don't be too sure that you know who it is. If there's only one thing that you can be sure of about me is that I am an Independent with a capital "I." If I ever follow the tendencies of my demographic group(s), it's pure coincidence.

I am thankful that I have a vote, and I will cast it. After that it's out of my hands. No matter what the result, we will still be the United States of America.


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Saturday, October 06, 2012 - ,,, 6 comments

Where Are You on 'The Political Compass'?

Several years ago I did this survey with some friends who visit this blog, but considering this blog's new focus, I think it's worth another look.

The Political Compass gauges not only the "Left" and "Right" leanings on an economic scale, but also on the level of government involvement, which the site refers to as a social scale. Overall, I think that the site does a good job of objectively describing the different locations on the grid from a political science perspective.


It also plots the location of well known political/economic figures from the 20th Century, which is great to put the grid into context. In addition, it plots the positions of world leaders.

Here, I think that website demonstrates a slight skew to the left, meaning that some of the current figures appear further right than you might expect. However, the site makes the determination based on their actions rather than their stated positions. When thinking of politicians, this is reasonable, but it doesn't necessarily take their working environment into account.

So, where are you on The Political Compass? Click Here to take the test. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that my most recent score was a -1.25 Economic/-4.75 Social. That will make a lot more sense to you once you take the test and read the analysis.

Let us know how you scored and what you think of the test.

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