The Limitations and Weaknesses of Elections by John C. Courtney.

The Limitations and Weaknesses of Elections by John C. Courtney.

The dominant weakness of the book was the way in which it was designed. The book placed major focus on the institutions of elections, which of course is important. However, there was only very minor mention of the citizens responsibility to take care of themselves in accordance to elections (chapter 4). It is the governments responsibility to make sure it is accessible for citizens to get their name on the voters list, as is done through the means mentioned, such as checking a box on income tax forms. It is not the responsibility of the government to chase after the 20% of Canadians who move every year, citizens must to an extent be responsible for themselves and such was not mentioned in any occurrence of the many topics explored in Elections.

One of the limitations of the book was that key factors were omitted from the discussion on Proportional representation (PR)