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Civics - Electoral Politics

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4 views2 pages

Civics - Electoral Politics

Uploaded by

Ligesh Dermal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Q. Why do we need elections?

Election is a mechanism by which people can choose their representatives at regular intervals and
change them if they wish to do so. Elections are considered essential in our times for any representative
democracy.

In an election the voters make many choices:

1. They can choose who will make laws for them.


2. They can choose who will form the government and take major decisions.
3. They can choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.

Q. What makes an election democratic? Or What are the minimum conditions of a democratic
election?

1. First, everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have one vote and
every vote should have equal value.
2. Second, there should be something to choose from. Parties and candidates should be free to
contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters.
3. Third, the choice should be offered at regular intervals. Elections must be held regularly after
every few years.
4. Fourth, the candidate preferred by the people should get elected.
5. Fifth, elections should be conducted in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they
really wish.

Q. Is it good to have political competition?

Elections are thus all about political competition. This competition takes various forms. The most
obvious form is the competition among political parties. At the constituency level, it takes the form of
competition among several candidates. If there is no competition, elections will become pointless.

Demerits

1. It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’( arguments/disputes) in every locality.


2. Different political parties and leaders often make allegations against one another.
3. Parties and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections.
4. The pressure to win electoral fights does not allow sensible long-term policies to be formulated.
5. Some good people who may wish to serve the country do not enter this field as do not like the
idea of unhealthy competition.

Merits or Why electoral competition is necessary

1. Regular electoral competition provides incentives to political parties and leaders.


2. They know that if they raise issues that people want to be raised, their popularity and chances
of victory will increase in the next elections. But if they fail to satisfy the voters with their work
they will not be able to win again. So if a political party is motivated only by desire to be in
power, even then it will be forced to serve the people.
3. political competition may cause divisions and some ugliness, but it finally helps to force political
parties and leaders to serve the people.

Q. What is meant by the term Constituency?

1. Constituency is an area whose voters elect a representative to a legislative body.


2. India is divided into different areas for the purpose of elections. These areas are called electoral
constituencies. The voters living in an area elect one representative.
3. For Lok Sabha elections, India is divided into 543 constituencies. The representative elected
from each constituency is called a Member of Parliament or an MP.
4. Each state is divided into a specific number of Assembly constituencies. In this case, the elected
representative is called the Member of Legislative Assembly or an MLA.
5. Each Parliamentary constituency has within it several assembly constituencies.

Q. What Are Reserved Constituency? Why Are They Necessary?

1. Constituencies in which seats are reserved for the for the weaker sections - people of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes are known as reserved constituencies.
2. In a SC reserved constituency only, someone who belongs to the Scheduled Castes can stand for
election. Similarly, only those belonging to the Scheduled Tribes can contest an election from a
constituency reserved for ST. Currently, in the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for the
Scheduled Castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes (as on 26 January 2019).
3. In many states, seats in rural (panchayat) and urban (municipalities and corporations) local
bodies are now reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) as well. Similarly, one-third of the
seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.

Reserved constituency is necessary because otherwise certain weaker sections may not stand a
good chance to get elected to the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assemblies. They may not
have the required resources, education and contacts to contest and win elections against others.
Those who are influential and resourceful may prevent them from winning elections. If that
happens, our Parliament and Assemblies would be deprived of the voice of a significant section of
our population. That would make our democracy less representative and less democratic.

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