Personal tools
You are here: Home ACE Encyclopaedia Topic Areas Electoral Systems Criteria for Design Holding Individual Representatives Accountable
 
Left arrow Previous Table of Contents Next Right arrow

Holding Individual Representatives Accountable

Accountability at the individual level is the ability of the electorate to effectively check on those who, once elected, betray the promises they made during the campaign or demonstrate incompetence or idleness in office and ‘throw the rascals out’. Some systems emphasize the role of locally popular candidates, rather than on candidates nominated by a strong central party. Plurality/majority systems have traditionally been seen as maximizing the ability of voters to throw out unsatisfactory individual representatives. Again, this sometimes remains valid. However, the connection becomes tenuous where voters identify primarily with parties rather than candidates, as in the UK. At the same time, open and free list systems and STV are designed to allow voters to exercise candidate choice in the context of a proportional system.


 

 Creative Commons License