Election And Representation NCERT Textbook PDF

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Election And Representation NCERT Textbook With Solutions Book PDF Free Download

Election and Representation

Chapter 3: Election and Representation

In such an arrangement citizens choose their representatives who, in turn, are actively involved in governing and administering the country. The method followed to choose these representatives is referred to as an election.

Thus, the citizens have a limited role in taking major decisions and in running the administration. They are not very actively involved in making of the policies.

Citizens are involved only indirectly, through their elected representatives.

In this arrangement, where all major decisions are taken by elected representatives, the method by which people elect their representatives becomes very important.

The second question reminds us of the fact that not all elections are democratic. A large number of nondemocratic countries also hold elections. In fact, nondemocratic rulers are very keen to present themselves as democratic.

They do so by holding elections in such a way that it does not threaten their rule. Can you think of some examples of such non-democratic elections?

What do you think would distinguish a democratic from a nondemocratic election? What can be done to ensure that elections in a country would be conducted in a democratic way?

You may have noted above a reference to different methods or the systems of elections. You may have wondered what these were all about.

You may have seen or read about different methods of electioneering or campaigning in the elections.

But what are the different methods of elections? There is a system of conducting elections. There are authorities and rules about do’s and don’ts.

Is that what the election system is all about? You may have wondered why the constitution needs to write down how the votes are to be counted and representatives elected.

Isn’t that very obvious? People go and vote. The candidate who gets highest votes gets elected. That is what elections are all over the world. Why do we need to think about it?

We need to, because this question is not as simple as it appears to us. We have got so used to our system of elections that we think that there cannot be any other way. In a democratic election, people
vote and their preference decides who will win the contest.

The Congress party won four-fifths of the seats. Does it mean that four out of five Indian voters voted for the Congress party? Actually not. Take a look at the enclosed table. The Congress party got 48% of the votes.

This means that only 48% of those who voted, voted in favor of the candidates put up by the Congress party, but the party still managed to win more than 80% of the seats in the Lok Sabha.

Look at the performance of other parties. The BJP got 7.4 percent votes but less than one percent of seats. How did that happen?

The Congress party won greater share of seats than its share of votes because in many of the constituencies in which its candidates won, they secured less than 50% of the votes.

If there are several candidates, the winning candidate often gets much less than 50% of the votes. The votes that go to all the losing candidates go ‘waste’, for those candidates or parties get no seat from those votes.

Suppose a party gets only 25 percent of the votes in every constituency, but everyone else gets even fewer votes. In that case, the party could win all the seats with only 25 percent votes
or even less.

Let us compare this to how elections take place in Israel which follows a very different system of elections.

In Israel, once the votes are counted, each party is allotted the share of seats in the parliament in proportion to its share of votes (see Box).

Each party fills its quota of seats by picking many of its nominees from a preference list that has been declared before the elections.

This system of elections is called the Proportional Representation (PR) system. In this system, a party gets the same proportion of seats as its proportion of votes.

AuthorNCERT
Language English
No. of Pages27
PDF Size2.8 MB
CategoryPolitical Science
Source/Creditsncert.nic.in

NCERT Solutions Class 11 Political Science Chapter 3 Election and Representation

Question 1.
What is Democracy?
Answer:
Democracy is a type of government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

Question 2.
What is meant by direct democracy?
Answer:
In a direct democracy, the citizens directly participate in day-to-day decision-making and in the running of the government. Example – Greece.

Question 3.
What do you mean by Universal Adult Franchise?
Answer:
All adult citizens of a country above maturity age are entitled to enjoy the right to vote without any discrimination, known as Universal Adult Franchise.

Question 4.
What does FPTP and PR stand for?
Answer:
FPTP: First Past the Post System.
PR: Proportional Representation.

Question 5.
Mention the amendment made in constitution of India in 1989.
Answer:
It reduced the eligibility age of Universal Adult Franchise from 21 to 18.

Question 6.
What do you mean by Election System?
Answer:
Election system is a medium to elect the representatives especially in indirect democracy to form the government. The representatives are elected by the people to act in accordance with the wishes of the people.

NCERT Class 11 Political Science Textbook Chapter 3 Election and Representation With Answer PDF Free Download

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