Taking the Party out of Politics - Episode 4

Episode 4 explores the problems with the way we select our democratic representatives, both at a local level (selecting our local representative) and at a national level (selecting the group of representatives who will form our government.

The challenges of adequately representing the interests of not only majorities, but also the interests of minorities, too.What it means to get a majority of the vote – to get elected. In many instances, more people voted against our local representatives than voted for them.Can a political party, which goes on to form a government, ever actually get a majority of the votes cast? (Spoiler alert – not recently!)What about all those people who don't vote? 

Political parties form majority governments, without winning a majority of the votes cast nationally.

But do we then really have a government which represents us?

What does all of this that say about electoral mandates? – the legitimacy to make changes? – perhaps even big changes?

And if the government doesn't represent us, then is it really a representative democracy?

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