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Politics Paper 1 > Chapter 10-Electoral Systems > Flashcards

Chapter 10-Electoral Systems Flashcards

1
Q

What are the functions of Elections in the UK:

A 
Representation
Choosing a government 
Participation 
Influence over policy
Accountability 
Citizen education 
Legitimacy 
Elite recruitment
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2
Q

What is a mandate?

A

An authoritative instruction; the doctrine of the mandate gives the party that wins a general election the authority to implement its manifesto commitments

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3
Q

What is a manifesto?

A

A document in which a political party sets out its policy programme at an election

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4
Q

What are the different level of elections?

A 
General elections
Elections to the devolved assemblies 
Local elections 
European Parliament elections 
By-elections
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5
Q

What is a by-election ?

A

A one-off election that takes place in an individual constituency when a vacancy arises between scheduled elections

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6
Q

What is a constituency?

A

A geographical area that elects one or more representatives to a legislative assembly

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7
Q

What are the four main types of electoral system?

A

Majoritarian system
Plurality system
Proportional representation
Mixed system

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8
Q

What is a majoritarian system?

A

An electoral system in which the winning candidate must achieve an absolute majority of votes cast in a single member constituency

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9
Q

What is a single member plurality system?

A

An electoral system in which the candidate with the most votes in a single member constituency wins

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10
Q

What is the First past the post system used for in the UK and what are its key features?

A

General elections to the House of Commons

Plurality system; single member constituencies; disproportional outcome

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11
Q

What is the supplementary vote system used for in the UK and what are its key features?

A

Mayor of london, directly elected mayors, police and crime commissioners
Majoritarian system used to elect individuals voters record two preferences winning candidate has a majority

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12
Q

What is regional list system used for in the UK and what are its key features?

A

List seats for the Scottish Parliament, welsh assembly and london assembly
Proportional representation system; electors vote for a party in multi member regions; proportional outcome

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13
Q

What is the additional member system used for in the UK and what are its key features?

A

Scottish Parliament, Welsh assembly, london assembly
Mixed electoral system; electors cast two votes- one for a constituency candidate elected by FPTP and one for a regional list candidate elected by closed list PR; list candidates are allocated to parties on a corrective bias to produce a proportional outcome

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14
Q

What is Single transferable vote system used for in the UK and what are its key features?

A

Assembly, local and European elections in Northern Ireland and local elections in Scotland and NI
Proportional representation system; electors rank candidates in multi member constituencies; proportional outcome

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15
Q

How does FPTP system operate?

A

MPs are elected in single-member constituencies. Each constituency in the UK elects one representative to the House of Commons

  • Electors cast a single vote by writing a cross on the ballot paper beside the name of their favoured candidate
  • a candidate requires a plurality of votes to win: that is one more vote than the second place candidate
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16
Q

How are constituency boundaries determined?

A

By independent boundary commissions which review the size of the electorate in each constituency every 8-12 years.
Differences in size are permitted if there are significant geographical factors

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17
Q

How might constituencies be unfair ?

A

At the 2017 election the most populous constituency was Isle of Wight had an electorate five times larger than the smallest constituency, Na h-Eilanen an Iar 110,700 v 21,300
Urban constituencies tend to have fewer electors than suburban and rural seats.

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18
Q

What are safe seats?

A

A constituency in which the incumbent part has a large majority and which is usually retained by the same political party election after elections

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19
Q

What is marginal seat?

A

A constituency where the incumbent party has a small majority and may thus be won by a different party at the next election.

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20
Q

What is a swing

A

The extent of change in support for one party to support for another party drone one election to another

21
Q

What is a swing

A

The extent of change in support for one party to support for another party drone one election to another

22
Q

What I turnout?

A

The percentage of registered voters who voted at an election

23
Q

What are the features of FPTP elections?

A 
A two party system 
A winner’a bonus 
Bias to a major party
Discrimination against third and smaller parties 
Single party government
24
Q

What is a winners bonus?

A

The share of seats that the first placed party wins in excess of its share of the vote under FPTP. The system exaggerates the support received by the most popular party giving it more seats than is proportional to the number of voters it received, thus boosting its majority in Parliament

25
Q

What are some reasons for a bias for one particular party?

A

Tactical voting
Differences in constituency size
Differential turnout

26
Q

How are smaller parties disadvantaged?

A

Mechanics - FPTP makes it more difficult for smaller parties to win seats. There are no rewards for coming second
Psychology- smaller parties have a credibility problem because voters believe that vote for them is a wasted vote

27
Q

what is a minority system?

A

A government consisting of members of one political party which does not have an absolute majority of seats

28
Q

What is a coalition government?

A

A government consisting of two or more political parties usually with an absolute majority of seats in parliament formed after an agreement on policy and ministerial posts

29
Q

What is a majority governments?

A

A government consisting of members of one political party which has an absolute majority of seats

30
Q

What arguments are in favour of FPTP?

A
  • Simplicity
  • clear outcome
  • strong and stable government
  • responsible government
  • effective representation
  • keeps out extremist parties
31
Q

What arguments against the first past the post system?

A
  • Disproportional outcomes
  • plurality rather than majority support
  • Votes are of unequal value
  • Limited choice
  • Divisive politics
  • FPTP no longer does what it’s supposed to do
32
Q

What are the key features of the supplementary vote?

A
  • The voters record their first and second preferences on the ballot paper
  • if no candidate wins a majority of first preferences all but the top two candidates are eliminated and the second preference votes for the two remaining candidates are added together to their first preference votes
33
Q

What are the advantages of the supplementary vote?

A
  • the winning candidates must achieve broad support giving them greater legitimacy
  • supporters of smaller parties can use their first preference to express their allegiance and their second preference to to indicate which major party candidate they prefer
  • The votes of people who use both their first and second preferences to support minor parties do not influence the election outcome
34
Q

What are the disadvantages of Supplementary vote ?

A
  • The winning candidate may be elected without winning a majority of votes if second preference votes are not used effectively.
  • The winning candidate does not need to get a majority of first preference votes - the least unpopular might win
  • the system would not deliver a proportional outcome if used for general elections
35
Q

The main features of the single transferable vote system are?

A
  • Representatives are elected in large multi-member constituencies
  • Voting is preferential, writing 1 or 2 next to a choice
  • voting is ordinal voters can vote for as many candidates as they wish
  • A candidate must achieve a quota know as the droop quota
36
Q

What are the advantages of single transferrable vote

A
  • it delivers a proportional outcome and ensures that votes are largely of equal value
  • the government is likely to consist of a party or group of parties that win over 50% of the vote
  • voters choose between a range of candidates including different candidates from the same party
37
Q

What are the advantages of the Additional member system?

A
  • it combines the best features of the FPTP system and proportional representation
  • results are broadly proportional and votes are less likely to be wasted
  • voters have greater choice split-ticket voting is allowed
  • some parties have used the system to improve the representation of women
  • votes are easy to count
38
Q

What are the disadvantages of the additional member system?

A
  • it creates two categories of representative
  • parties have significant control over the closed lists voters cannot choose between candidates from the same party
  • smaller parties are often underrepresented
  • proportional outcomes are less likely to where the number of additional members is low as in the welsh assembly
39
Q

What is the impact of electoral systems on the type of government?

A
  • minority and coalition governments are the norm in the devolved assemblies. However the 2011 Scottish Parliament delivered an outright winner
  • FPTP is becoming less likely to deliver a majority government
40
Q

What is the impact of electoral systems on party representation?

A
  • Elections to the devolved assemblies and European Parliament better reflect the development of multiparty politics across the UK
  • Disproportional representation
  • FPTP as the engineer for the two party system
41
Q

What is the impact of electoral systems on voter choice?

A
  • voters have greater choice under AMS, SV and STV than under FPTP, they allow for split ticket voting, allowing voting behaviour to become more sophisticated.
  • vote for a minority party is less likely to be wasted under AMS
  • some have found other systems difficult to understand
42
Q

What is a referendum!

A

A vote on a single issue put to a public ballot by the government

43
Q

Distinguish what a referendum is?

A

An example of direct democracy- citizens make the decisions themselves
One off vote on a specific issue of public policy
The choice offered to voters is normally a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Decision to hold a referendum is taken by government

44
Q

What are the three UK wide referendums?

A
  • 1975 referendum on continued membership of the European Economic community
  • 2011 referendum on using the alternative vote system for Westminster
  • 2016 referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union
45
Q

What are local referendums used for?

A 
Establishing directly elected mayors 
Congestion charges 
Council tax increases 
Neighbourhood plans 
Parish polls
46
Q

What are national referendums used for?

A

Constitutional change
Coalition agreement
Party management
Political pressure

47
Q

What are the referendum regulations?

A
  • Wording
  • campaign participation, groups and individuals who expect to spend more than 10,000£ on referendum campaigning must register as participants with the Electoral commission
  • campaign spending
  • conduct of the campaign
48
Q

What are the impacts of referendums?

A

Direct democracy
Parliamentary sovereignty and representative democracy, marks a shift to popular sovereignty
Constitutional convention, devolved assemblies further change by convention needs a referendum

Politics Paper 1 (12 decks)

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