How are Jersey's ways of politics so unique?

States assembly located at the heart of St Helier, members of  this parliament based here to discuss new laws and regulations built in 1497

Politics is the study of the administration of a nation or region, particularly the disputes between the ruling parties, becoming a huge factor and building the popularity of this area. Elections have been growing like never before with more voters becoming apparent in this year alone compared to the last 10 years. Elections are an essential part of politics, aiding to provide inclusivity for audiences from as young as age 14 (Wales) up till the elderly. There are various techniques to voting, how the elections are made and what influence this has for deciding the country’s candidate in power. The most distinct and influential countries that use this voting system are the US, UK and surprisingly Jersey.

To begin with the US is definitely the region that individuals first think of when they hear the word ‘elections’, due to its well-known drama caused within this system and the candidates representing their party. Their system is to present parties to the public eye, to express what their views and changes they would like to conduct for the ‘better’ of America. This is known as a term called democracy, which is a system within government where there is a large amount of power presented to someone through the support of people/public (widespread population of America). 

The electoral system is called a two-party system meaning two parties dominate the political field in all three levels of government. These three levels are the national, state and local level, with the national level being the highest position in power (president), located at Washington D.C (The White House). This system helps to ensure that the two main parties in power is allowed to have a wide platform that represents the general public. The last election held in the US is in November 2020, where Joe Biden (democratic party) was up against Donald Trump (republican party) and came out on top. The public was able to vote through months of debates from the candidates introducing what their aims are. For example, Joe Biden’s party (Democratic) showed their aims to be obtaining a progressive tax system, higher minimum wages, universal health care, public education and many more. Whereas with Donald Trump’s party implied that he supports the right-leaning ideologies of conservatism (meaning the holding of political views that favours socially traditional ideas and broadly advocates those values. When these parties’ suggestions are open to the public eye, there is a process of voting, allowing the audience to have their say in what they think of these parties. As these parties are so largely scaled, there is a huge amount of political positions available for each party. Due to many people available to join the party there can be numerous opinions presented by those people to help grow the aims of the party they are in. Each state in America sets their own voter ID rules, which mostly requires the individuals who wish to vote to bring their own identification in person as they are unable to vote online. 

Uk elections is significantly different for choosing their prime minister (individual person in power of the country. General elections are held in the UK to provide an opportunity for the public in every part of the country to choose their wanted MP. The MP is the person that will represent a certain area within the House of Commons for a total of up to five years. There is a long process to turn yourself into a higher level of power to the UK. For this process, there is many candidates in each constituency – someone elected as representative for government etc. Between all these candidates, the most voted by the people in the House of Commons is selected as the MP. Even though the most voted can be most popularised, the true decision lies in the Monarch’s opinion on who they think would be best fit for the country. With America, the most voted personal is the individual who can be appointed president; however, this is not the case for the UK. The public is unable to vote for a new prime minister that they would prefer with to the government of the day being in full control of when to hold a general election. But you are allowed to select for your local MP to be in a general election. In order for a political party to win they need to have the most seats inside the House of Commons at the election to establish a government. These laws however are all created and laid out in a Cabinet Manual, which plays a major role in controlling how to operationalise which individual is put in place of power for the UK. Using this Cabinet Manual also describes what the prime minister is allowed to take control in, such as, appointing which personals would be fit to work in their chosen government departments. 

The House of Commons has many types of political parties displayed to the public and monarch to present their views. Examples of popular political parties are Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Independent. The Labour party, representative being Keir Starmer, is a left-wing party building up restoration in pride and purpose for the country. Their aims are to guarantee a minimum standard of living for the public, nationalisation of the industry and heavy taxation of large incomes. This party is considered as the top political party for this year's election, going up against the UK’s current prime minister’s (Rishi Sunak) party, Conservative. The Labour party was founded by trade unions, from hundreds of years ago. This is because unions had believed that working individuals should represent themselves in Parliament. And a century later people still believe that Labour is only party that ‘truly’ speaks for working people. The rival of the Labour party is the conservative, who is a right-wing to centre-right party on the political spectrum. The principles that they would like to introduce to the public is to include the promotion of private property and enterprise, the maintenance of a strong military and to keep the traditional cultural values and institutions. Here Rishi Sunak has claimed that 18-year-olds would be made to join the military on a mandatory basis with a promise of an allowance of a ‘stipend’ of help with their living expenses. Another party which has recognition for its ideas is the Liberal Democrat party. This is primarily social liberal, which supports redistribution but is doubtful of increasing the power of the state. Showing the link between equality and liberty, whilst supporting investment and progressive taxation. Another value that the party promotes which is popular with the public is to seek balance within society where no one will be enslaved by poverty, ignorance and conformity.  The current leader for this party is Sir Edward Jonathon Davey who has served as the man in power since 2020. Lastly, a party that has become popular with the public is the Independent party, which is a right-wing populist party. They have experienced a great level of success in the mid-2010s, where they had secured two members of Parliament, with being the largest party representing the UK in the European parliament.