The Limitations And Weaknesses Of Elections By John C. Courtney.

The Limitations and Weaknesses of Elections by John C. Courtney.

The dominant weakness of the book was the way in which it was designed. The book placed major focus on the institutions of elections, which of course is important. However, there was only very minor mention of the citizens responsibility to take care of themselves in accordance to elections (chapter 4). It is the governments responsibility to make sure it is accessible for citizens to get their name on the voters list, as is done through the means mentioned, such as checking a box on income tax forms. It is not the responsibility of the government to chase after the 20% of Canadians who move every year, citizens must to an extent be responsible for themselves and such was not mentioned in any occurrence of the many topics explored in Elections.

One of the limitations of the book was that key factors were omitted from the discussion on Proportional representation (PR) and the debate as to whether it should replace the current system of First Past the Post (FPTP). For example, it was not mentioned that PR would encourage the erosion of small interest orientated parties. Further omitted from the audit are the difficulties that would be associated with changing Canada's electoral format in relevance to educating an uninvolved population. As was seen in Citizens, the Canadian public is not highly interested in politics, or the political process, therefore teaching an uninterested population would certainly cause issues, particularly teaching elderly people who are habituated with the current system.

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