Non-partisan Democracy - Overview

Overview

Sometimes electioneering and even speaking about candidates may be discouraged, so as not to prejudice others' decisions or create a contentious atmosphere. Nonpartisan democracies may possess indirect elections whereby an electorate are chosen who in turn vote for the representative(s). (This is sometimes known as a 2-tier election, such as an electoral college.) The system can work with a first past the post electoral system but is incompatible with (partisan) proportional representation systems other than Single Transferable Vote.

A nonpartisan system differs from a single-party system in that the governing faction in a single-party system identifies itself as a party, where membership might provide benefits not available to non-members. A single-party government often requires government officials to be members of the party, features a complex party hierarchy as a key institution of government, forces citizens to agree to a partisan ideology, and may enforce its control over the government by making all other parties illegal. Members of a nonpartisan government may not share any ideologies (though in voluntary organizations, they of course may). Various communist nations such as China or Cuba are single-party nations although the Members of Parliament are not elected as Party candidates.

A direct democracy can be considered nonpartisan since citizens vote on laws themselves rather than electing representatives. Direct democracy can be partisan, however, if factions are given rights or prerogatives that non-members do not have.

In many nations, the head of state is nonpartisan, even if the prime minister and parliament are chosen in partisan elections. The heads of state are expected to remain neutral with regards to partisan politics.

There are two basic types of nonpartisan governments - de facto and de jure. De facto nonpartisan governments are ones where no laws prevent the formation of political parties, but no parties exist. Most of the de facto nonpartisan governments represent very small populations, such as in Niue, Tuvalu, and Palau. On the other hand, governments that outlaw political parties but do have elections are de jure nonpartisan systems. Several de jure nonpartisan national governments are Persian Gulf states, such as Oman and Kuwait. The legislatures in these Gulf state nonpartisan governments typically have advisory capacity only (i.e. - They may comment on laws proposed by the executive branch, but are unable to create real laws themselves.), but are partially or entirely elected by citizens.

Unless there are legal restrictions on political parties, factions within nonpartisan governments may evolve into political parties. The United States of America initially did not have enfranchised political parties, but these evolved soon after independence.