Comparative Politics Midterm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparative Politics Midterm - Essay Example The answer to this question is simple and straightforward. This is the most popular pattern of democracy, practical from the functional point of view of the government in power. In a democracy, the political party that wins the election, turns to be the powerful chair and the party/parties those are defeated turn to be chair-less powers! Elucidating this issue further Arend Lijphart writes, â€Å"The majoritarianism-consensus contrast arises from the most basic and literal definition of democracy-government by the people or, in representative democracy, government by the representative of the people—and President Abraham Lincolns famous further stipulation that democracy means government not only by but also for the people—that is government in accordance with the peoples preferences.†(1) From the technical point of view, and going the by the rule book of democracy, the issue is clear. The party in majority, rules the country and its decisions are final and legal ly binding on the people. The Consensus Model is to accommodate for the viewpoints of the other party /parties, even though they have lost the election are obliged to sit in the opposition benches. In this model, there is always room for the others. They believe, two heads are better than one. Lijphart throws more light of the functioning of such democracies and he comments, â€Å"The alternative answer to the dilemma is: as many as possible. This is the crux of the consensus model. It does not differ from the majoritartian model on accepting that majority rule is better than minority rule, but it accepts majority only as a minimum requirement: instead of being satisfied with narrow decision-making majorities, it seeks to maximize the size of these majorities.†(2) Working as per the guidelines of this model, the majority party does not believe that whatever it decides is correct; rather it is willing to believe and implement, whatever correct is there, belongs to all. The French system of