Everything about Indirect Election totally explained
Indirect election is a process in which voters in an
election don't actually choose between candidates for an office but rather elect persons who will then make the choice. This process is used in many
union elections and sometimes in professional, civic, and fraternal organizations, as well as in the election for
President of the United States.
In the United States, the President is elected indirectly. Voters elect a slate of candidates for the
Electoral College, which in turn elects the President. A similar process has been used in the past in some emerging democracies.
South Korea,
Poland,
Slovakia and the
Republic of the Philippines initially had indirect elections for their presidencies, but new constiutions have seen
direct elections for these offices. Other emerging democracies, such as the
Czech Republic,
Estonia,
Latvia, and
Hungary were still indirectly electing their presidents by their respective parliaments
as of 2008. The Electoral College of the
United States is by far the most long-lived of all methods of indirect election of a national president.
Indirect political elections have been used for lesser national offices, as well. In the United States, the
Senate was elected by the legislatures of the states until 1913, when the
Seventeenth Amendment instituted direct elections for those office-holders. The
Twenty-fifth Amendment allows for the possibility, as in the case of
Gerald R. Ford, for a person to ascend to the Presidency in a way that completely bypasses the Electoral College, and, thus, any sort of popular vote whatsoever. In
France, election to the upper house of Parliament, the
Sénat, is indirect, with the electors (called "grand électeurs") being local elected representatives.
Perhaps the most pervasive form of indirect election, however, is for
Prime or
First Ministers in
parliamentary systems. While members of the parliamentary body are elected directly, it's their votes, usually cast for their
party leader, which determine who becomes
Prime Minister. However, a Prime Minister is more a representative of the parliament, a
primus inter pares (first among equals), who has just one vote, just like any other member of parliament, and therefore doesn't have the power that
presidents have. Such a system tends to make all elections more about national issues than is generally the case in the U.S., where it's very commonplace for some districts routinely to vote, often by a large majority, for a Presidential candidate from one party and a member of
Congress from the other. Then again, a parliamentary system usually also has separate elections for lower governments (such as city or province). So the same system may be used at different independent levels, possibly even with different parties. In the United States, this indirect election of legislative power is mirrored in the election of
Speaker of the House and
Senate Majority Leader. Along with all Congressional leadership offices, the Speaker and Majority Leader are chosen by a
caucus of the
majority party in
Congress, while
Minority Leaders are chosen by a caucus of the
minority party.
Further Information
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