Comment by dragonwriter
10 hours ago
If election by vote of members of body itself elected by citizens isn't election, we need to start referring to the US President as an unelected leader.
Also, prime ministers in most parliamentary systems.
10 hours ago
If election by vote of members of body itself elected by citizens isn't election, we need to start referring to the US President as an unelected leader.
Also, prime ministers in most parliamentary systems.
Some Americans do think that the Electoral College is not that democratic.
I live in one of the states that belongs to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
> Some Americans do think that the Electoral College is not that democratic.
"democratic" and "elected" are entirely different adjectives.
The system for electing the US President is very much not democratic, and still the President is very much elected. (Though its less undemocratic than it used to be, when the electors themselves were not generally directly elected by the voters.)
There are indirect elections that are reasonably demoocratic despite being indirect (the PM in some, but not all, parliamentary systems), there are elections that aren't based on anything like a general citizenry at all—e.g., Papal elections. For a leader to be elected is certainly not a sufficient condition for their position to be held democratically (it may be a necessary condition, though.)
Member states control who will be presented to the EP.
As you may know European Parliament is not really a Parliament either, as it can neither enact laws nor appoint EU executives, it just approves or rejects Council proposals.