Parliamentary government formation: Difference between revisions

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It is common that changes to laws are not decided by the government alone and many countries have statements in the constitution restricting what decisions can be made by the Executive branch. The government is normally not formed from all parties so some decisions are made based on a vote from the whole of the elected representatives, the legislative branch. There are many ways in which this can happen and they tend to depend on the system under which the representative was elected.

By far the most common method is that each representative gets one vote to approve or disapprove of a bill or motion. In a regional system where each region has the same number of constituents this makes sense. Even in this case with both [[Balanced Representation]] and [[Proportionate Representation]], some have argued that this method is lacking. The representative is expected to vote on behalf of all their constituents but it is argued that they can’t do this on divisive issues because not all the constituents agree. Therefore, it is open for debate if a representative should have the voting power of those who did not vote for them and do not want to be represented by them.

By far the most common method of [[Legislative voting]] is that each representative gets one vote to approve or disapprove of a bill or motion. In a regional system where each region has the same number of constituents this makes sense. Even in this case with both [[Balanced Representation]] and [[Proportionate Representation]], some have argued that this method is lacking. The representative is expected to vote on behalf of all their constituents but it is argued that they can’t do this on divisive issues because not all the constituents agree. Therefore, it is open for debate if a representative should have the voting power of those who did not vote for them and do not want to be represented by them.

In some systems, it would be possible for the member’s vote to have power weighted the number of votes cast for them. Alternatively, voting power could be based on the percent of votes cast for them. These two differ in that the former is affected by voter turnout. Systems like Score or Approval voting would be able to more accurately weight the power because the votes for them would better represent their support. This type of weighted vote is often proposed but rarely adopted because of the logistical complications.