Democratic Deficit in Canada - Term Paper Example

Defination Democratic Deficit is the term used to label the government which falls deficient in working as compared to how it's supposed to work. . Objective The objective is to understand the reasons behind the democratic deficit of Canada and understanding of the MMP and PR to be incorporated in the electoral system and its affects. To view the current system of the Canadian political scene and highlighting the factors that affect the people of Canada and their desire for a change of the political scenario in regards to their choices and decisions. Aim The aim is to assess whether Canadian democracy suffers from democratic deficit or not. Introduction William Dunn (British parliamentarian) claims to have first used the term to describe the difference between the EU and the citizens of its member countries. It occurs when the democratic organizations somewhat fall short in their workings according to the principles of democracy. What and how a country faces democratic deficit is all dependent on the perception of its people towards the government policies, this thinking alone could be as a result of higher expectations of the people from its government or it could very well be because of their objectives. The subjective thinking of the people or the objective thinking is what categorizes a country to be labeled as suffering from democratic deficit or not suffering from Democratic deficit. A system usually falls under the category of Democratic Deficit because as society grows and becomes more complex the needs change and become of different priorities which need to be met by the elected representatives. Failing of which the people see it as not working as a democratic system and hence term the system Democratic Deficit. In a similar manner the democratic institutions have to be in accordance to the changing needs like for example an institution that worked for a few hundred people would not prove successful with the figures of hundreds changing to millions. Hence the Democratic Deficit sets where the government fails to keep up with the growing demand of technology and economic environment. Even the media plays a very important role to the problem of democratic deficit by publicizing one view to the extreme. It is a very important role of the media to project the situation in a manner without thinking up tactics of promoting its own cause only then would the people be able to grasp the deficiencies if any in the government or even the good beneficial effects that the system is affording. The knowledge gain factor is directly associated with the media in the current times and one must ensure that the media plays its vital role fully and duly. What the term democratic deficit implies is that it is the differences of the different people's opinions in the sizing up of their government. We could also put it in this way that basically the people feel that they are being neglected and their needs are not addressed. By Canadian standards the democratic deficit stems from the fact that when a definite gap is seen in the involvement, trust and decision making of its people. The main characterizing point of the system to be in democratic deficit is when there is a low voter turnout; people do not take an active interest in politics and a failure of trust in the democratic institutions. Canada has shown a gradual decline of the voter turnout. This started from the Second World War and was especially marked in the years 1953, 1974 and 1980. If the recent elections were to be accounted for then one would note how the eligible voter's number was by far greater than the number who did vote and the party one. Canada has seen less interest in the Canadian politics and leadership since 1960's. Today Canada suffers from democratic deficit as the people of Canada do not have high opinions about their politicians and they simply don't trust them. They are of the opinion that those who stand to be elected are misfit and will not keep their word and are more after the money than they have any care about the people or their problems.( PammettandLeDuc(2003). Another reason why the Canadian people are suffering from the democratic deficit is because the newer generation is not that enlightened towards politics than their elders. They just are not bothered on the political front. This generation although is although less cynical yet still they do not bother to vote. Now to understand the causes that make the system fall under the category of deficit we have to delve into layers of problems that are so interconnected to each other that it is difficult to really separate them to deal with them. First and foremost as discussed earlier the country has people who are discontent with the system itself. (NeilNevitte.2002)The citizens are so busy with their lives for one that they are not bothered on the political front. But this is not to say that they are that busy as not to be interested in knowing the options they have. They want this so that when an issue arises which concerns them they have the knowledge to practice it. Their involvement however is trickled because they consider their input as of no consequence. Moreover they are of the opinion that the government does not redress the issues concerning them rather it tackles the rural problems and most Canadians live in urban societies. Many are of the view that it is the fiscal imbalance that is the main cause of the democratic deficit. For this many issues remain unresolved and in the end a wrong person would be answerable to the problem to which he has no concern. Not just this Canada needs to have some form of accountability in which there is an order of reporting and what needs to be done by whom and the result be handled by appropriate persons. And the best way to add quality to the procedure was by gaining appropriate information. Altogether a government that acts as being transparent will help the citizens gain confidence in their actions as they would know for sure where there tax money was ending up. Deliverance of the professed promises is another problem. People feel dejected also because they think that those who do get elected are because of reasons other than being chosen or able. Rather they get elected through money and to make money. It is because of the current past the post electoral system that the people feel their votes being useless because unless they vote for the candidate who is winning their vote is of little consequence. The distribution of the seats has remained the same for ages and as the elections are every 3.5 yrs the politicians need to work with speed to obtain agendas and address the problems the people are facing. The short duration makes it not possible always. In his book "Canada's Democratic Deficit, Is proportional Representation the answer" Dennis Pilon notes that the thinning of the Canadian voters is due to the money-driven politics and unless the parties take it to their heads to become more responsible for the people for whom they are elected and not for the money and this can be achieved with elections being more competitive in the sense that they reflect the choices the people made.( Pilon,Dennis.2004)This is his view of Canada's democratic deficit. What can Proportional representation do in Canada, under the influence of PR any Canadian party would ultimately fail to gain majority. This helps in the bonding of the political parties in a manner that they are thrown to work together whether they like it or not. Proportional representation disables the government from gaining majority but then again the Canadian government becomes unstable in the minority situation. So if the Canadian system was to be based on proportional representation then there would be yearly elections in the country and the result would be dissatisfied elected members and that would consequently mean lack of work. Basically the act of the PR system is that it inculcates a sort of coalition government system, which is the combination of majority coalition governments. This consists of a number of parties that then work to achieve or gain the stability of the government which itself could not be the case of in the minority government. What the Canadians need to understand is that such a coalition does not mean that it is any informal agreement between the parties involved. Rather than being a threat as in the case of alliances where they can threat to offset the government if it does not listen. The coalition however is a means by which the ruling party chooses another party with which it decides it can work and also in favor of gaining at least 50 per cent of the seats as well. The coalition party's work together in deciding the roles they are going to play in order to stabilize the framework in the longer run. But then again would the majority coalition government work in Canada is something to be pondered upon. If the Canadian culture and parties are to be examined it would clearly be understood that such coalitions would not be welcomed simply because of the diversified interests and values of the parties and the parties would be unlikely to consider such close collaborations. First Past to Post enables parties to gain majority seats in the parliament which otherwise fail to gain majority by virtue of vote. Furthermore the parties interested in governing will organize and shape their political agendas. By virtue of this there exists no compromising situation and the parties concerned work with force to win the election. However the one party majority government is no longer applicable to the government in Canada and this is because of the fact that the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have emerged as such a great strength that advantage of the First Past the Post of a majority government for other parties was nullified. It is the dream world of the parties to be ruling by themselves which is basically harming the structure of Canada. To stabilize the nation the key factor lies in the fact that they form coalition governments. In 2007 the mixed member proportional came on the scenario by which the party who gained 50% votes would gain as much seats in the parliament. First Past the Post system uses the system to elect one representative of the parliament based on the majority of the votes. This causes things to become less proportionate and imbalanced as by this course a party is constituted that does not let other smaller parties obtain a sufficient number of seats in the parliament. Further by this system a majority is created that is not favored by the people themselves but is a result of the system hence the people feel dissatisfied as they feel to be cheated of making choices in the electoral scenarios and their votes to be futile efforts. It was because of this highlighting factor that the alternate system was recommended, this being the MMP system. This system somewhat balances the system by reflecting the choice of citizens and especially the minorities. Although there are people who are still skeptic about the outcome of the MMP system as they regard this change as providing solution to some extent and not a complete answer to Canada's democratic deficit. In Canada the system of first past the post has achieved a lot and that is the formation of governments. But this has been the root cause of many other problems that generated because of this simple procedure. The highlighting one being of promotion of regionalism and governments that was actually second in place to the voter's choice. Such manifestations could be cured through proportional representations. But then again they don't come without difficulties attached to them either. At one hand what proportional representation does is that it makes the formation of a majority government difficult. In Canada the provincial setup is more important than the federal setup as by and large they generally overcome the federal power. So if proportional representation was to be taken up at the federal level it would also have to be taken up at the provincial level because if the provincial level maintained the first past the post then the power shift would be towards the provincial end. Decentralization is opposed by most of the Canadians and adoption of unilateral proportional representation by the federal government would mean just that. We also see that first past the post can as easily remove a government from the scenario. The dependency of the proportional representation on drawn up lists by the concerned parties as to the choice of candidates to be elected is not good either. This causes some of the members as being the non effectors and to touch or remove them would be a difficult task. This does not meet up with the people who want a change and if proportional representation were to be taken up then it would be pretty much the same faces no matter whom the people voted for. Moreover proportional representation does not encourage autonomy in parliamentarians. The members of such systems have to depend on their parties to be elected and so have no power as independent candidates.( Dyck, R. 1993) This means that by themselves they have little identity and it is the party by which they have recognition without which they are nothing. At the Senate level Canada faces another huge problem and this is that instead of its members being elected they are rather appointed. Here the easy way out is the use of proportional representation at the senate level this will turn the difficulties attached to the PR at the parliamentary level turn into virtues at the Senate level. Recent studies have shown that the Canadians are not that happy with the outcome that any party can have majority without having the majority vote. This has become quite unacceptable to the Canadians. Issues like the right of women, the participation of the youth and the place of the minorities have surged up. These are the issues outside of the parliament and they have to be addressed in the democratic deficit of Canada as Canadians consider them to be the direct cause of the system itself. Today for the implementation of reform we must have civic literacy amongst the Canadians for only ten they can understand the workings and the effects of the democratic government. It has been a major issue attatched to the first past the post electoral by which Canadians saw themselves as helpless by lookers to outcomes that were not of their choice and so a failure of their choices being preferred they saw their objectives going down the drain as well and for this they completely lost interest in the political scenario of their country. Hence opinion regarding politics was of little use to them and dissatisfaction prevailed. Conclusion It is very essential now that Canada looks to reform its current electoral system. This is essential as the country is losing the trust of its residents and also their confidence. For any system to be popular it must take the people along with it and at the same time must go to any measures by keeping them abreast of the situations and their workings. The belief of the new generation that their voice is of little consequence must be altered and a mixed system in electoral representations must be included so as to give voice to people, the minorities, and women. If the Canadian citizens are feeling left out then new mechanisms have to be set forth in order to deal with the situation as better decisions are the decisions that come from the public itself. It is time to change the tactics and the power that has been given to candidates too many a times be handed to some fresh change whereby the needs be addressed afresh as well. 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