The president of the United States is elected by the electoral college. What type of system is this?
a) dicatatorship
b) monarchy
c) oligarchy
d) pure democracy
e) representative democracy
Check this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy
Some have argued that there is no such thing as a pure democracy, but that some have gotten close. The USA is a republic which is still a type of democracy. The will of the people is expressed in an indirect democracy by voting. There were once places where the people gathered to directly make the laws themselves, though.
The correct answer is (e) representative democracy.
To arrive at this answer, we need to understand what the Electoral College is and how it functions. The United States has a system known as the Electoral College, which is a method used to indirectly elect the president and vice president.
Here's an explanation of how the Electoral College works:
1. The presidential candidates compete for electorates: In the United States, voters do not directly elect the president. Instead, they vote for a slate of electors in their respective states. These electors are usually party members or individuals nominated by the political parties.
2. Determining the number of electors: The number of electors each state receives is based on its representation in Congress. Each state gets a certain number of electors equal to the total number of representatives it has in the House of Representatives (based on population) plus its two senators.
3. The state-based winner-take-all system: Most states in the United States follow a winner-take-all system, where the candidate who wins the popular vote in a state receives all of the state's electoral votes. For example, if Candidate A receives the majority of votes in California, they win all of California's electoral votes.
4. Electoral votes determine the outcome: The candidate who secures the majority of the electoral votes (at least 270 out of 538) becomes the president. The electoral votes cast by the electors typically take place in December after the general election.
This system can be classified as a representative democracy because it involves the people electing representatives (electors) who then vote on behalf of the citizens to determine the president. It is not a pure democracy, where citizens directly elect their leader, nor is it a dictatorship, monarchy, or oligarchy, as power and decision-making are distributed among various individuals and institutions.