Part of the discussion I had last Saturday revolved around electing people to public office all levels. How do you go about assessing who to vote for? What are their responsibilities? And who should they be paying attention to?
One person at the table said they went through each party manifesto before coming to a decision, another that they looked at the person standing.
The discussion at the table then went on regarding whether elected members had to toe the party line, because they were elected under a party banner or were they there to represent their constituents instead and thus, had to vote they way their constituents wanted. However to do the latter, the elected member either had to “poll” all of their constituents on an issue or respond depending on the “weight” of their mailbag; email inbox; social networking feed. Neither might be representative as it depends on the number of responses/contacts made. There was no agreement between us on this.
Public petition systems were mentioned as a way of measuring electorate concern to help elected members guage how to vote but the current e-petition systems run by both parliaments seemed to fail in a number of respects. The threshold for Westminster ones only guarantee’s a debate in the House of Commons while the Holyrood one filters out potential parliamentary bills. No-one was quite sure how local authority ones work. The Holyrood one needs refined to allow a threshold on number of signatures which would then force a referendum leading to a Bill being introduced.
For me, it always been about whether I “believed” in the individual being promoted by my party as being the “best for the job”. That has led me personally not to vote for the party candidate at the recent local authority elections and not voting for the party constituency candidate at the last Scottish Parliament elections. In neither case did I believe my party had selected the right person. In both instances I voted for someone else regardless of their party affiliation, I voted for the individual.
This discussion brought to mind a posting I put up several years ago. In that posting it was argued that no-one elected to public office is elected as a representative of their political party. They are elected as individuals – the party label being a description only. This is different to how most people think, and vote, as most people will vote on the basis of political party manifesto’s.
The People’s Gathering hosted by Electoral Reform Society Scotland at the Merchant’s Hall Edinburgh on Saturday 14th July 2012. Attendees were posed the question: It’s 2030 and Scotland is admired as a shining example of democracy and democratic participation. What three aspects of this future society please you most?
This article is one of a few based on the discussions I had on that day.
Scotland 2030: Elected Members – who do they represent?
Part of the discussion I had last Saturday revolved around electing people to public office all levels. How do you go about assessing who to vote for? What are their responsibilities? And who should they be paying attention to?
One person at the table said they went through each party manifesto before coming to a decision, another that they looked at the person standing.
The discussion at the table then went on regarding whether elected members had to toe the party line, because they were elected under a party banner or were they there to represent their constituents instead and thus, had to vote they way their constituents wanted. However to do the latter, the elected member either had to “poll” all of their constituents on an issue or respond depending on the “weight” of their mailbag; email inbox; social networking feed. Neither might be representative as it depends on the number of responses/contacts made. There was no agreement between us on this.
Public petition systems were mentioned as a way of measuring electorate concern to help elected members guage how to vote but the current e-petition systems run by both parliaments seemed to fail in a number of respects. The threshold for Westminster ones only guarantee’s a debate in the House of Commons while the Holyrood one filters out potential parliamentary bills. No-one was quite sure how local authority ones work. The Holyrood one needs refined to allow a threshold on number of signatures which would then force a referendum leading to a Bill being introduced.
For me, it always been about whether I “believed” in the individual being promoted by my party as being the “best for the job”. That has led me personally not to vote for the party candidate at the recent local authority elections and not voting for the party constituency candidate at the last Scottish Parliament elections. In neither case did I believe my party had selected the right person. In both instances I voted for someone else regardless of their party affiliation, I voted for the individual.
This discussion brought to mind a posting I put up several years ago. In that posting it was argued that no-one elected to public office is elected as a representative of their political party. They are elected as individuals – the party label being a description only. This is different to how most people think, and vote, as most people will vote on the basis of political party manifesto’s.
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