Winner-Takes-All

Examples of Winner-Takes-All in the following topics:

• The Caucus

  • Despite a Democratic Party rule that delegates are allocated proportionally rather than "winner takes all," some caucus groups decide individually how to allocate their group's delegates.
  • In the "winner-take-all" scenario, a group's delegate allocation may be reported as unanimous while ignoring minority votes.

• The Two-Party System

  • In the U.S., forty-eight states have a standard winner-takes-all electoral system for amassing presidential votes in the Electoral College system.
  • The winner–takes–all principle applies in presidential elections, thus if a presidential candidate gets the most votes in any particular state, all of the electoral votes from that state are awarded to the candidate.
  • In all but Maine and Nebraska, the presidential candidate must win a plurality of votes to wins all of the electoral votes; this practice is called the unit rule.
  • There are two main reasons winner–takes–all systems lead to a two-party system.
  • There have been arguments that the winner-take-all mechanism discourages independent or third-party candidates from running for office or promulgating their views.

• Winning an Election: Majority, Plurality, and Proportional Representation

  • Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation, or plurality voting with a number of criteria for the winner.
  • The most common system, used in Canada, the lower house (Lok Sabha) in India, the United Kingdom, and most elections in the United States, is simple plurality, first-past-the-post or winner-takes-all.
  • The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly that is based on single-member constituencies .
  • In political science, the use of the plurality voting system alongside multiple, single-winner constituencies to elect a multi-member body is often referred to as single-member district plurality (SMDP).

• The Electoral College

  • They may vote for another candidate or not vote at all.
  • In nearly all states, electors are awarded to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state on a winner-take-all basis.
  • This means that if Candidate A wins 51% of the popular vote in a given state and Candidate B wins 49%, Candidate A would take all of the Electoral College votes for this state.
  • In the presidential general election, the winner is determined based on who receives the greatest number of votes in the Electoral College system.

• Public Choice: Median Voters and Inefficient Voting Outcomes

  • Obviously, when voting takes place not everyone will agree with the outcome, but everyone has the ability to participate in the process.
  • The Condorcet method of voting consists of any election method that elects candidate that would win by majority rule in all pairings against the other candidates.
  • In the event of a tie or unclear winner (Condorcet paradox) alternate methods of determining a winner are used including tie breakers, additional rounds of voting, etc.
  • In this case, the requirement of majority rule does not provide a clear winner.
  • The Condorcet paradox means that there is not a clear winner and ambiguities must be resolved to determine the election results.

• Cooperation, Competition and Conscription

  • In rivalry, there is a winner and a loser.
  • All societies develop social institutions (behavioral patterns) to coordinate the activities of production, distribution and consumption.
  • There is a wide range of forms these institutions may take depending on the physical environment, state of technical knowledge, social values and other factors.
  • The ability and determination of each rider, given the structure of the race, determines or allocates the finishing position (winner, 2nd, 3rd , etc) of each rider.
  • The winner of a mountain bike race may not be the winner in a road race.

• Regulating Campaign Finance

  • The average winner of a seat in the House of Representatives spent $1.4 million on his or her campaign.
  • The average winner of a Senate seat spent $9.8 million.
  • From the inception of this program in 1976 through 1992, almost all candidates who could qualify accepted matching funds in the primary.
  • In 2004 Bush and Democrats John Kerry and Howard Dean chose not to take matching funds in the primary.
  • Republican Tom Tancredo and Democrats Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and John Edwards elected to take public financing.

• Candidates for Congressional Elections

  • Due to gerrymandering, fewer than 10% of all House seats are contested in each election cycle.
  • Elections to Congress take place every two years.
  • The winner is the candidate who receives a plurality of the popular vote.
  • Congress (34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats) are up for election on November 8, 2016.
  • In order to take the chamber back, Democrats will need to gain five seats in 2016.

• The General Election Campaign

  • The winner of a presidential general election is not simply the person who receives the majority of votes nationwide.
  • Under this system, statewide elections take place in which voters cast ballots for candidates.
  • Because a candidate only needs to win a majority of votes in the state to receive all of its Electoral College votes, this system has lead to election strategies in which states with a solid Republican or Democratic majority are not contested by candidates.
  • Instead, candidates focus their campaigns on so-called "swing states. " Swing states are those without a clear majority party, in which all of the state's Electoral College votes are therefore up for grabs.
  • In the presidential general election, the winner is determined based on who receives the greatest number of votes in the Electoral College system.

• Screening

  • While there are millions of products available to consumers, many more products do not make it to market at all.
  • With an average cost of $1 billion to bring a drug to market, it would take several billion in sales to recoup the cost .
  • In the latter case, a potential winner never sees the market.
  • This figure illustrates the long process it takes for a drug to enter the market.