How to evaluate the electoral college and winner-take-all system in the United States

1. The president of the United States is not elected by the "people" of the United States, but by the "electors" of the United States.

Although the American people voted for their presidential candidate on 1 1 month "election day", these votes did not directly elect the president, but elected "electors" who participated in the1February presidential election on behalf of the States.

Because these "electors" are based on states other than Washington, D.C., each state is an "electoral college" for short. There are 5 1 "electoral college" in the 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia, with a total of 538 electors. The person who won 270 electoral votes was elected president of the United States.

Since "election day" is the day when the American people are voting for the presidential candidate they support, why not directly elect the president, but also bypass the "electoral college" to elect the president?

2. The first country to "cross the river by feeling the stones"

The United States is indeed the first country in the world to "cross the river by feeling the stones". However, Americans cross the river by feeling the stones, not fish in troubled waters. So Americans don't touch stones for more than 30 years, and they don't touch stones for more than 3 years. They only touched the stones for three and a half months-a total of * *116 days, and they crossed the river smoothly.

The victory of the war of independence only solved the problem of "freedom" of the country, and there is no advanced experience to learn from the problem of "construction" of the country. So the founding fathers of the United States decided to "cross the river by feeling the stones" and build a country that does not allow the government to oppress the people.

1From May 25th, 787 to1On September 7th, 787, the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia formulated the first written constitution in the world. The purpose of the constitution is: to limit the power of the public and protect the rights of citizens; Balance the interests of all parties and safeguard the interests of the weak.

Restricting public power is achieved through the separation of the three powers and mutual checks and balances. Please note that power should not only be centralized, but also decentralized, and all kinds of power should be balanced and not combined. For example, in some countries, although the public, procuratorial and legal powers are separated, they do not balance each other; Therefore, in the units that should supervise each other, jokes of unified leadership and cooperation often appear.

The Constituent Assembly discussed four options for the election of the President, namely, the election by the National Assembly; Elected by the governor; Directly elected by the people of the whole country; Elected by the electoral college.

The constitutional representative believes that the election of the president by parliament is not conducive to the separation and checks and balances between executive power and legislative power; The election of the president by the governor is prone to corruption; There may be "artificial manipulation" and "mob rule" in the direct election of the president by the whole people. Considering the natural conditions and interest pattern of the United States at that time, after weighing and compromising, the electoral college was finally adopted to elect the president.

Three. Elect a president, such as a pope.

The method of presidential election in the first democratic country in the world is very different from other democratic countries in the world. Just in terms of form, it is similar to the form produced by the Pope.

The Pope is not elected by all believers, but by an electoral college composed of cardinals. The election of the president of the United States is based on this experience.

It must be noted, however, that the American President and Pope are only similar in election form, but totally different in essence.

Just pointing out the most essential difference is enough to explain the problem: cardinals are appointed by the pope, not elected, while American electors are not appointed by the president, but all elected by the people; Cardinals have public power, while American voters have no public power. Cardinals are long-term or even lifelong, while American electors are temporary and one-off.