Concept
Election
Overview
process by which a population chooses the holder of a public office
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Election is discussed.
These members are not chosen by the population, but by the State Legislatures, themselves elected by the people of each state; but as the whole ordinary business of a legislative assembly, internal legislation and the control of the executive, devolves upon these bodies, they are elected with a view to those objects more than to the other; and in naming two persons to represent the state in the federal Senate they…
John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is
Theory, I know, would suppose, that every general election is to the representative a day of judgment, in which he appears before his constituents to account for the use of the talent with which they entrusted him, and of the improvement he had made of it for the public advantage. It would be so, if every corruptible representative were to find an enlightened and incorruptible constituent.
Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; opens on it
My vote never changed anything.” Those somewhat more reflective add: “It is nothing but a fight between the ins and the outs. The only difference made by an election is as to who get the jobs, draw the salaries and shake down the plum tree.”
John Dewey, The public and its problems
states what it is; names the idea
Both have been employed in various republics, and a highly complicated mixture of the two still survives in the election of the Doge at Venice. "Election by lot," says Montesquieu, "is democratic in nature." I agree that it is so; but in what sense? "The lot," he goes on, "is a way of making choice that is unfair to nobody; it leaves each citizen a reasonable hope of serving his country." These are not reasons.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; opens on it
Now, they differ from each other in three ways, from which, blended together, all the varieties which can be imagined arise. The first of these differences is in those who appoint the magistrates, the second consists in those who are appointed, the third in the mode of appointment; and each of these three differ in three manners; for either all the citizens may appoint collectively, or some out of their whole body…
Aristotle, Politics
author linked in the graph; names the idea
Related ideas
- Freedom of the press
- Consent of the governed
- Women's suffrage
- Middle Ages
- Propaganda
- President of the United States
- Political science
- Rule of law
- Russia
- Taiwan
- Statistics
- Soviet Union
- Tamil Nadu
- Age of Enlightenment
- Aristotle
- United Kingdom
- Western Europe
- United States
- Sparta
- Business
- Bengal
- Ancient Rome
- Representative democracy
- China
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Political philosophy.