Pluralists have a different view on society than the other models of democracy. Pluralists believe that people are rational and capable but often apathetic and uninformed. In democracy, pluralism consists of the compilation of many minority governments and interest groups. A single majority government of 59% is capable to pass bills and laws fairly easily. This will create a positive outcome for 59% of the voting population. Although, the government representatives of the other 41% cannot make any major amendments. Pluralists run a utilitarian government, which is assumed can only be accomplished through a majority government, causing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. This is not true. A pluralist, utilitarian government can be very successful by building coalitions, bargaining, compromise and trade from a minority government. Pluralists are a government without a personal agenda or promise of raising or lowering taxes, or building a speedway. Pluralists work towards their moral philosophy. This is accomplished by measuring their actions according to its contribution to the happiness of the public. Basically if the people are happy, the pluralists are doing a good job. If the people are unhappy, the pluralists are doing a poor job.
In Canada, the Westminster model is used to separate the government into a bicameral legislature. This means the legislature is split into two houses. An appointed upper house, the Senate, and an elected lower house, the House of Commons. The Senate is only referred to as the upper house because its members outrank those who reside in the House of Commons. Each of the 308 members in the House of Commons represents a different geographical location. The Members of Parliament are elected through a first past the post system in each riding. They are distributed almost proportionately to the populations throughout the Canadian provinces and territories.
The Canadian House of Commons was modeled after the British House of Commons in 1867 as part of the British North America Act. Even though the House of Commons holds more power than the Senate, the approval of both houses is required to pass bills. Both houses are capable of making new government bills, but the other house must sign off on them. The exception is that only the House of Commons is able to pass bills due to taxes and government spending. As well, as long as the House of Commons has confidence in the Prime Minister, he/ she will remain in power.
The pluralist model of democracy does not support the idea of reserving fifty percent of the seats in the House of Commons for men and the remaining fifty percent for women as it does not provide the greatest amount of happiness for the most amount of people. If having a larger proportion of men to women or vice versa in the House of Commons makes the majority more content than pure gender equality in parliament, the pluralists will support it. However, the majority of people do not support this structure. The current system is set up to represent a majority rule democracy and this majority has not voted in anywhere close to the same amount of women as men. Although this is not exact as the people vote on Members of Parliament who represent a seat and the majority of seats hold power; if the people preferred more women, there would be a much closer proportion than 22.1%.
The people believe, and therefore the pluralists as well, that the best candidates deserve to be in the House of Commons and govern the country. The pluralists believe this because the best candidate will do the greatest amount of good for the country and thus, for its citizens. Politicians fall into a small category of roles that have the power to make life altering changes and therefore, should be placed in those positions strictly by merit. When performing surgery, going into space or conducting peace talks in war zones, the best candidate is vital. This is not a position to fight for equality. There are millions of people relying on this candidate to do their part in governing the country and none should be elected strictly based on gender or any other distinguishable, physical differences. The greatest amount of good is obtained by increasing the chances of success, thus resulting in more happy people. Therefore, the pluralists believe the best candidate deserves the position as they have the best chances of success. Although equality is important, the pluralists belief of happiness supersedes the need to enforce equality at this level.
Pluralism believes that society is made up of individuals organized into many groups. They believe they are “necessary to the functioning of the democratic process itself, to minimizing government co-ercion, to political liberty and to human well-being.” This is done as small groups build coalitions which naturally incorporate the majority’s point of view through bargaining and compromise. However, pluralism also emphasizes that these groups are not equal and government should be neutral between them. Reserving 50% of the seats in the house is not neutral and does not bring groups together. There is no bargaining or compromise to be done within one group, women. According to pluralism, the most efficient strategy along these lines would be to reserve a certain amount of seats for minorities or interest groups. By organizing many minorities or interest groups within the House of Commons, the power will be more equally distributed amongst different groups creating a setting that welcomes bargaining and compromise. For this idea to fit well with the views of pluralism, there should be a substantial, defined amount of seats for all minorities. This means, instead of having a seat for an Italian-Canadian, there should be seats that any minority may receive while still being voted in by the people. This, unlike strictly 50% women, is neutral and unequal as it does not specify which minorities or interest groups must be present and allows the people to vote in unequal amounts of different minorities. Pluralists do believe that it is important to have women in the House of Commons, however they should not be given half of the seats of the most influential group in Canadian politics.
Enforcing an equal amount of men and women creates many more equality issues. If there should be the same amount of men or women, should there be the same proportion of ethnicities, races and religion. Should there be an equal proportion of homosexuals and heterosexuals? If a homosexual, half negro- half Asian male has a sex change, would this account for one male, one female, one homosexual, one negro and one Asian when conducting the analysis to ensure that the house of commons upholds all levels of e quality.
