A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Mandate in Politics

Mandate: Definition, Theory and Examples

The word “mandate” finds its roots in the Latin term ‘mandare’, meaning ‘giving out’. In the political scenario, the term ‘mandate’ can mean anything from an authorized order to a promise.

Now, it sure can be challenging to understand the layers of the concept and its role in the electoral process of a country. To that end, here is a guide created by the best subject matter experts of MyAssignmenthelp.com to help you understand the concept clearly.

If you ask for a mandate’s definition, then the best way to describe it would be as an order/authority granted by an electoral constituency to someone to act as its representative. Every democratic government is supposed to have a legitimate mandate to grant the power to govern a country by winning a democratic election.

Here are certain things to remember when dealing with mandates in elections and the entire political scenario:

New governments who introduce policies that were not made public during an election campaign have a legitimate mandate to put such policies to practice.
Elections that result in a large margin of victory give the newly elected government or official an implicit mandate to implement certain policies.
When a government seeks re-election, it can introduce new policies as part of the campaign for approval from the voters. The government in question can term this as a "new mandate".
Governments and elected officials may use a "mandate" to lend legitimacy to actions that they take in office.

According to certain constitutional languages, a "mandate" can be defined as a parliamentary seat that is won in an election outside the electoral victory. Based on the obligation towards the electorate's wishes, a mandate can be of more than one type.

What is a Political Mandate?

In the realm of politics, a mandate can be described as the authority given by an electoral leader to a representative. Parliamentarians of democratic governments often take on the task of representing the will of voters by conducting a political mandate.

Now, there are two kinds of mandates in politics - a free mandate and an imperative mandate:

Free Mandates

A free mandate gives authorization devoid of any preconditions. This means that the person receiving the mandate is bound to act solely by one's conscience. The mandates in the German Bundestag are an excellent example of free mandates.

Imperative Mandates

An imperative mandate comes with a few restrictions based on the policies that an elected official can implement. This means that the holder of such a mandate has to act as per the will of the electorate giving the mandate.

What is an Electoral Mandate?

An election promise is a guarantee made by an electoral candidate or a political party to the public (voters).

In the Western world, most candidates and political parties have a positive satiation rate of fulfilling election promises. As per a survey conducted on 12 countries western countries (Canada, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S.), most of the winning parties fulfilled their electoral mandates promises to a considerable extent of around 67% to 75%.

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Examples of Broken Electoral Mandates

The British Labour Party failed to fulfill the party's pledge in 1947 of setting up a ministry of housing.
George H. W. Bush had promised not to raise taxes while being the president in his electoral campaign in 1988. However, Bush increased taxes after a recession hit during his term, widening the deficit.
In 1995, Australian PM John Howard said that he would never make GST a part of Liberal policy. But GST was enforced in 1998 after Howard was re-elected.
Irish candidate Fianna Fáil gave out an electoral mandate in the 2002 election to put a permanent end to hospital waiting lists by 2004 and create a world class health service. But nothing such development happened in Ireland.
Barack Obama, the former U.S. President, vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay detention campin Cuba during his campaign in 2008. But the prison remains open as of May 2021.

What is Individual Mandate? Meaning and Examples

An individual mandate is a mandatory requirement enforced by law for certain people to purchase or obtain for personal or business purposes.

Here are some examples of individual mandates in different countries:

Militia Act in the U.S.

The militia clause required every "able-bodied white male citizen" in the U.S. aged between 18 and 45 to equip himself with a weapon and ammunition. However, since the Militia Act was never enforced, this mandate was never litigated either.

Seaman Relief Act in the U.S.

This act was formulated back in 1798 as an individual mandate that authorized employers to deduct 20 cents from each seaman's monthly payment and give it to the Collector of the Federal Treasury. The money was said to be used to build hospitals for the maintenance of sick or disabled seamen.

Fire Alert in Australia

The Australian government has enforced an individual mandate stating that all house and building owners must install smoke alarms. A failure in doing so can result in litigation charges.

These were the basic tenets of a mandate – political, electoral, and individual. If you want more information about mandates beyond this short guide, you can get in touch with the experts at MyAssignmenthelp.com.

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