Indirect election

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Indirect election is a process in which voters in an election do not actually choose between candidates for an office but rather elect persons who will then make the choice. This process is used in many union elections and sometimes in professional, civic, and fraternal organizations, as well as in the election for President of the United States.

In the United States, the President is elected indirectly. Voters elect a slate of candidates for the Electoral College, which in turn elects the President. A similar process has been used in the past in some emerging democracies. South Korea, Poland, Slovakia and the Republic of the Philippines initially had indirect elections for their presidencies, but new constiutions have seen direct elections for these offices. Other emerging democracies, such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Hungary were still indirectly electing their presidents by their respective parliaments as of 2008. The Electoral College of the United States is by far the most long-lived of all methods of indirect election of a national president.

Indirect political elections have been used for lesser national offices, as well. In the United States, the Senate was elected by the legislatures of the states until 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment instituted direct elections for those office-holders. The Twenty-fifth Amendment allows for the possibility, as in the case of Gerald R. Ford, for a person to ascend to the Presidency in a way that completely bypasses the Electoral College, and, thus, any sort of popular vote whatsoever. In France, election to the upper house of Parliament, the Sénat, is indirect, with the electors (called "grand électeurs") being local elected representatives.

Perhaps the most pervasive form of indirect election, however, is for Prime or First Ministers in parliamentary systems. While members of the parliamentary body are elected directly, it is their votes, usually cast for their party leader, which determine who becomes Prime Minister. However, a Prime Minister is more a representative of the parliament, a primus inter pares (first among equals), who has just one vote, just like any other member of parliament, and therefore does not have the power that presidents have. Such a system tends to make all elections more about national issues than is generally the case in the U.S., where it is very commonplace for some districts routinely to vote, often by a large majority, for a Presidential candidate from one party and a member of Congress from the other. Then again, a parliamentary system usually also has separate elections for lower governments (such as city or province). So the same system may be used at different independent levels, possibly even with different parties. In the United States, this indirect election of legislative power is mirrored in the election of Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader. Along with all Congressional leadership offices, the Speaker and Majority Leader are chosen by a caucus of the majority party in Congress, while Minority Leaders are chosen by a caucus of the minority party.