7 - Elections, voting and political parties

Summary

Introduction

Elections lie at the heart of the political process in regimes normally called ‘democratic’. They do so in two senses.

• On the one hand, they provide an institutional channel for the input of ordinary citizens into the political process. Thereby they give authority to those duly elected to make binding decisions for the polity as a whole. By that token they rule out as illegitimate alternative means of bringing about political change, unless these have been sanctioned by the elected themselves. And, since parties increase their vote shares by successful appeals to electors located beyond their ideological heartlands (provided they are also successful in retaining their ‘core’ support), they are, in most circumstances, under strong pressures to moderate their appeals as the price of electoral success. So the institution of elections makes a significant contribution to political stability.

• On the other hand, elections do not offer citizens as individuals much by way of empowerment; for citizens' roles are limited to an infrequent choice between pre-packaged alternatives. However elections do ensure that citizens collectively have an influence on public policy: elite competition for office and the law of anticipated reactions ensure that, however vulnerable atomised voters' opinions are to elite manipulation, disharmony between majority opinion and the substance of public policy is most of the time kept within tolerable limits. In this way too do elections contribute to stability.