Culture File USA: Presidential Elections, Part 3 - Red, Blue & Swing States

The implementation of the "winner-takes-all" electoral system in the USA results in most individual states not splitting their congressional representatives and their electors proportionally among the political contenders but favoring the party with most of the votes.

The color "red" thus represents states which go to the Republican party, and those won by the Democrats are called "blue" states. 

Despite a long history of associating the main political parties with the colors red and blue, modern media broadcast eventually led to today's color coding, most visible in the electoral maps on the screens of TV sets across the country on election night. 

Culture File USA: Presidential Elections, Part 2 - The Electoral College

In terms of candidates winning an election, the popular vote remains the most significant parameter in modern western democracies. 

In many democratic states, proportional representation means that the distribution of seats in a legislative institution such as a parliament corresponds closely with the number of total votes cast by the electorate for each political contestant. Thus, the seats in parliament for each contender reflect the proportion of votes cast and, in many cases, political parties have to build a coalition to achieve sufficient mandates in order to form a government.

In other cases, a "winner-takes-all" system is in place; the party with the most votes can gain a majority of seats in the legislature and form the government consisting of solely its own representatives, excluding political competitors from active participation. This system favors two or more larger parties and systematically disadvantages smaller contestants. The United Kingdom is a prominent example of the "winner-takes-all" system.

Culture File USA: Presidential Elections, Part 1

With the United States of America remaining a global super power and arguably the most powerful country in the world, presidential elections in the USA and their outcome potentially impact on geopolitics around the world and the global economy. Their significance warrants a closer look at the US political system and how it works.