What is the difference between majority rule and plurality rule?

Answer 1

A majority rule is a decision which means that more than 50%+1 of the voters, voted for a particular person or issue at hand. A plurality rule means that less than 50% voted for the person or issue, but that vote earned more than any other vote.

Answer 2

the excess of votes received by the leading candidate, in an election in which there are three or more candidates, over those received by the next candidate (distinguished from majority ).

If you have an election and three people are running whoever gets over fifty percent of the vote is the majority and the other two candidates would be considered pluralists. When you split an amount between three and one has the majority the other two would be considered pluralist. The above is not entirely correct. A Majority is over half the votes, while a Plurality is the greatest number of votes but less than half. A plurality happens when less than half vote for a candidate that wins because the vote is split among more than two candidates. For example, candidate A gets 40% of the vote, candidate B gets 35%, and candidate C gets 25%, Candidate A wins by a plurality.

Answer 3

In a plurality system, there is one election and the candidate who receives the most votes, even if it is less than 50% (i.e. 40%, in a three-candidate election where the others received 35% and 25%), wins the election. In a majority system, there is a first election and if one candidate wins more than 50%, they win. If no candidate wins more than 50%, the top two candidates have a run-off election to determine the victor. The majority system allows for multiple parties to run since the divisive effect on the general liberal and conservative votes are annulled by the run-off election, which can unite different camps.

Answer 4

Winning by a plurality means the winner simply got the most votes than any of the other candidates. For example, it there were 5 candidates and one got 35% of the votes which was more than any of the others, they win. Winning by a majority means the candidate must win by more than 50% to win the election. If no one gets more than 50% the two with the most votes have a runoffelection to decide the winner.

Answer 5

Really? the majority of the voters have to approve majority vote, popular vote is just the one more people voted for... it could win with only 1% voted for and the rest left blank.

Answer 6

Winning a majority of the votes means winning more than 50% of the total votes cast. Winning a plurality of the votes means less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate.