Formalizing Mandates

After an election, there is often some talk of a 'mandate' that licenses the winning party to push for its reforms. There is something somewhat strange about this, since margins of victory are rarely very large and even then, since voting is a binary affair, it is hard to infer a whole lot about which party actually received more support (as opposed to support from more individuals).

Despite its problems, this idea of a mandate still has some value in providing people with a reason to vote. Currently, individual votes don't make a difference in the result of the election. They might, however, directly contribute to the mandate received by the political party.

Supposing this is a good thing, why not formalize it? Obama beat Romney by about 5 million votes in the last election. Suppose that for every 100,000 votes that a president beats their opponents by, they can flip one vote on one bill in the house of representatives, or for every 500,000, they can flip one vote in the senate. In a evenly split congress, this could make a significant different on getting one or two bills passed, allowing the new president to push through some of his or her agenda, but it wouldn't have a huge impact on the power of the balance of power.