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Safe Seat
A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing hands because of the political leanings of the electorate in the constituency concerned or the popularity of the incumbent member. This contrasts with a marginal seat in which a defeat for the seat holder is considered possible. In systems where candidates must first win the party's primary election or preselection, the phrase "tantamount to election" is often used to describe winning the dominant party's nomination for a safe seat. Definition There is a spectrum between safe and marginal seats. Supposedly safe seats can still change hands in a landslide election, such as Enfield Southgate being lost by the Conservatives (and then-potential future party leader Michael Portillo) to Labour at the 1997 UK general election, whilst oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral District
An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provide the voters therein with representation in a legislature or other polity. That legislative body, the state's constitution, or a body established for that purpose determines each district's boundaries and whether each will be represented by a single member or multiple members. Generally, only voters (''constituents'') who reside within the district are permitted to vote in an election held there. The district representative or representatives may be elected by single-winner first-past-the-post system, a multi-winner proportional representative system, or another voting method. The district members may be selected by a direct election under wide adult enfranchisement, an indirect election, or direct election using another form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Politician
An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views that do not align with the platforms of any political party and therefore they choose not to affiliate with them. Some independent politicians may be associated with a party, perhaps as former members of it or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question has selected another candidate. Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its policies) at another level. In some cases, a politician may be a member of an unregistered party and therefore officially recognised as an independent. Officeholders may become independents after losing or r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordic Countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland. The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, History of Scandinavia, history, religion and Nordic model, social and economic model. They have a long history of political unions and other close relations but do not form a singular state or federation today. The Scandinavism, Scandinavist movement sought to unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into one country in the 19th century. With the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden (Norwegian independence), the independence of Finland in the early 20th century and the 1944 Icelandic constitution ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pork Barrel
''Pork barrel'', or simply ''pork'', is a metaphor for allocating government spending to localized projects in the representative's district or for securing direct expenditures primarily serving the sole interests of the representative. The usage originated in American English, and it indicates a negotiated way of political particularism. Political science Scholars use it as a technical term regarding legislative control of local appropriations. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Typically, "pork" involves national funding for government programs whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public works projects, certain national defense spending projects, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited examples. Citizens Against Government Waste, a fiscally conservative advocacy group, outlines seven criteria by which spending in the United S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proportional Representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) among voters. The aim of such systems is that all votes cast contribute to the result so that each representative in an assembly is mandated by a roughly equal number of voters, and therefore all votes have equal weight. Under other election systems, a bare Plurality (voting), plurality or a scant majority in a district are all that are used to elect a member or group of members. PR systems provide balanced representation to different factions, usually defined by parties, reflecting how votes were cast. Where only a choice of parties is allowed, the seats are allocated to parties in proportion to the vote tally or ''vote share'' each party receives. Exact proportionality is never achieved under PR systems, except by chance. The use of elector ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Apathy
In political science, political apathy is a lack of interest or apathy towards politics. This includes voter apathy, information apathy and lack of interest in elections, political events, public meetings, and voting. Voter apathy is a lack of interest among voters in the elections of representative democracies. Political apathy or lack of interest is often cited as a cause of low turnout among eligible voters in jurisdictions where voting is optional, and the donkey vote where voting is compulsory. This phenomenon occurs to some extent across all countries or entities where citizens are able to vote. Political apathy has led to increased concerns regarding representative democracies because election results do not encompass the entire population who are eligible to vote. Political alienation Political apathy is sometimes considered distinct from political alienation, "the sense that voters feel like the political system does not work for them and any attempt to influence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-past-the-post Voting
First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first-preference votes than any other candidate (a ''plurality'') is elected, even if they do not have more than half of votes (a '' majority''). FPP has been used to elect part of the British House of Commons since the Middle Ages before spreading throughout the British Empire. Throughout the 20th century, many countries that previously used FPP have abandoned it in favor of other electoral systems, including the former British colonies of Australia and New Zealand. FPP is still officially used in the majority of US states for most elections. However, the combination of partisan primaries and a two-party system in these jurisdictions means that most American elections behave effectively like two-round systems, in which the first round ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vote Splitting
In social choice theory and politics, a spoiler effect happens when a losing candidate affects the results of an election simply by participating. Voting rules that are not affected by spoilers are said to be spoilerproof. The frequency and severity of spoiler effects depends substantially on the voting method. Instant-runoff voting (IRV), the two-round system (TRS), and especially first-past-the-post (FPP) without winnowing or primary elections are highly sensitive to spoilers (though IRV and TRS less so in some circumstances), and all three rules are affected by center-squeeze and vote splitting. Majority-rule (or Condorcet) methods are only rarely affected by spoilers, which are limited to rare situations called cyclic ties.. "This is a kind of stability property of Condorcet winners: you cannot dislodge a Condorcet winner ''A'' by adding a new candidate ''B'' to the election if A beats B in a head-to-head majority vote. For example, although the 2000 U.S. Presidential El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war Journalist, reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton (UK Parliament constituency), Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit". Background Bell is the son of author-farmer Adrian Bell, compiler of the first ever ''The Times, Times'' crossword. He is the brother of literary translator Anthea Bell (who died in 2018) and the uncle of Oliver Kamm, now a ''Times'' List of leader writers, leader writer who served as his political adviser during his term as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP). He was privately educated at the Taverham Hall School just outside Norwich in Norfolk, and then The Leys School in Cambridge. At King's College, Cambridge, he achieved a first-class honours degree in English and served on the committee of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Hamilton (politician)
Mostyn Neil Hamilton (born 9 March 1949) is a British politician and former barrister who was leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2020 to 2024. He was the Conservative member of parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1983 to 1997 and a UKIP Member of the Senedd (MS) for Mid and West Wales from 2016 to 2021. Hamilton was elected to the House of Commons in the 1983 general election. He was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state for corporate affairs by the prime minister, John Major, in 1992. In 1994, ''The Guardian'' alleged that Hamilton had taken cash payments in exchange for asking questions in Parliament. Hamilton sued ''The Guardian'' for libel, but settled on the day of the trial. ''The Guardian'' published a headline branding him "A Liar and a Cheat". The cash-for-questions affair enquiry in 1997 found that Hamilton had taken bribes. He subsequently lost a libel case on the matter. Hamilton became widely associated with sleaze, and was forced to resig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tatton (UK Parliament Constituency)
Tatton is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 United Kingdom general election, 2017 by Esther McVey, a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative. Constituency profile Tatton comprises the north-western part of the Cheshire East unitary authority, including the towns of Knutsford and Wilmslow, and a number of villages such as Alderley Edge, Chelford, Handforth and Mobberley, in Cheshire. It also covers a small, north-east, part of the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority, including some of the outskirts of Northwich. The seat largely comprises prosperous villages and small towns, set amidst Cheshire countryside, featuring country parks, hills, recreation grounds and golf courses. This includes areas with the highest house prices in the North of England, and some of the wealthiest villages in the United Kingdom as a whole. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
By-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumbent’s death or resignation, or when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, a prohibited dual mandate, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance), or when an election is invalidated by voting irregularities. In some cases a vacancy may be filled by a method other than a by-election (such as the outgoing member's party nominating a replacement) or the office may be left vacant. These elections can be held anytime in the country. An election to fill a vacancy created when a general election cannot take place in a particular constituency (such as if a candidate dies shortly before election day) may be called a by-election in some jurisdictions, or may have a distinct name (''e.g.' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
