Discover

An 'election' is a decision making process where people choose people to hold official offices. This is the usual mechanism by which modern democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This is also typically the case in a wide range of other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations. However, as Montesquieu points out in Book II, Chapter 2 of "The Spirit of Laws," in the case of elections in either a republic or a democracy, voters alternate between being the rulers of the country as well as being the subjects of the government, with the act of voting being the sovereign (or ruling) capacity, in which the people act as "masters" selecting their government "servants." Rather, the unique characteristics of democracies and republics is the recognition that the only legitimate source of power for government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" is the consent of the governed -- the people themselves.
The universal acceptance of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where elections were considered an oligarchic institution and where most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, where officeholders are chosen by lot.
Electoral reform describes the process of introducing fair electoral syst