5. Should the UK use a proportional system for General Elections? Part 1 Flashcards
How are proportional systems different to simple plurality systems?
Proportional Electoral Systems – Electoral systems in which seats are distributed to the parties more in proportion with their vote share e.g. 20% of vote = 20% of seats
Where is the closed party list system used?
Closed party system used to be used for British elections to the European Parliament (excluding Northern Ireland)
Closed party system is used in many countries, including Brazil, Finland, Israel, and the Netherlands
Closed party system:
- Voters vote for a party rather than a candidate
- The parties each rank their candidates in order of preference. E.g. if one party won 4 seats, their top form candidates would get those seats
- Parties are awarded seats using the d’Hondt formula
How is the ballot paper different to under FPTP?
The ballot has parties to vote for rather than candidates, a candidate still puts a single cross next to their chosen party. Parties then list their candidates under their party name
How is the d’Hondt formula used to award seats to each party?
Party list votes / Number of seats already won + 1
Whoever’s party has the highest resulting total wins the seat
This seat is added to their total and the process is repeated to allocate the remaining seats
How is it decided which candidates win seats?
The parties each rank their candidates in order of preference. E.g. if one party won 4 seats, their top four candidates would get those seats
How did the EU Parliament elections work before Brexit?
- The UK was divided into 12 larger electoral districts (constituencies) (England was divided into 9 regions and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all counted as 3 separate constituencies)
- Each region elected a different number of MEP’s to reflect differences in population sizes
European Election 2019 – East of England – 7 seats:
- Brexit - 3 seats
- Lib Dem - 2 seats
- Green - 1 seat
- Conservative - 1 seat
Voters simply choose a single party – but this also means they cannot choose a candidate
Advantage:
This makes the ballot paper very easy to understand and use
Disadvantage:
However, the voters have no say which politicians are elected
More proportional results – however, proportionality will vary depending on the size of the constituencies
It can be far easier to get votes in a larger constituency with a higher demographic of people with different political views.
Other countries have a fix to this problem:
Constituency seats: awarded based on constituency results – some votes will be wasted
These can be supplemented by…
‘Levelling’ seats: awarded to ensure that the national results are more proportional
Large constituencies eliminate ‘safe seats’, but also impact the MP-constituency link
Because the MP would have so many constituents they wouldn’t be able to look after all of them and there would be a weaker link between the two.
Thresholds can keep out extremist parties, but impact proportionality
Higher thresholds can keep out extremist parties but may impact the proportionality of the vote
Thresholds – a certain percentage of the vote that a party must get to gain a seat
The system hands considerable power to party leaders
The system hands considerable power to party leaders – will popular but outspoken candidates be left at the bottom of the lists?
Open list systems give voters more choice, but arguably make voting more complicated
‘Open list’ system give voters varying level of influence over the party list
e.g. in the Netherlands, voters first select a party, and then cast a preferential vote for a specific candidate from the party’s priority list
MP’s will then be chosen according to the list – however any MP who receives more than 25% of the quota will also be moved up the list, taking someone else’s place, and winning a seat
