Chapter 3 Electoral systems Flashcards
Purpose of elections
- Choosing an elected representative and government - Elections give a mandate to a representative for their actions in parliament. A collection of MP victories in a single party can then go on to form a government
- Holding the current representatives to account - An election allows for the current office holders to be judged on their time in office. This ensures that there are consequences for failure in government.
- Legitimising political power - a government formed from a free and fair election gives it the legitimacy to exercise power.
- Development of political policy - a strong and popular manifesto is likely to provide a success. Therefore, elections allow politicians to gauge the policy platform which best represents people.
Effects of FPTP
- Two party system - FPTP is a plurality based system. It is a winner take all system and is beneficial to parties with concentration of support in a geographical area. Labour urban, Conservative rural.
- Winner’s bonus - over-reward winning party in the election. Party may win on a plurality vote giving a higher percentage of seats than votes.
- Strong single-party government - usually party gains strong majority and is able to govern with strength. However, 2010, 2015, 2017 have been noted for their relative instability.
- Safe seats and swing seats - winner takes all results in a number of safe seats. Large concentration of loyal voters.
FPTP examples
2005 Labour formed a large majority government with only 35% of all possible votes
2015 Conservatives formed with 37%
Since 1935 only one government received 50% of the vote and that was 2010 coalition, otherwise the 1955 election saw Eden win 49.7%
More safe seats - significant jump in 2015 21 seats were won by more than 50% in 2017 35 were won by more than 50%
Disproportionate results - 2015 UKIP 12.5% only 1 seat. SNP 4.7% but 56 seats
Failed to deliver strong and stable government - FPTP has produced one stable government since 2010.
Only 117,000 ballots out of 47.5 mn were invalid.
MP Andre Bridgen who received emails for Boris Johnson’s resignation, Zac Goldsmith who promised to run as an independent if they built a second runway, Craig Tracey North Warwickshire MP on. HS2
in 2019 Con and Lab took 567 of 650 seats
2019 229 of 650 were won with less than 50% of vote
in 2019 70 parties ran but only 10 received seats
In 2019, 12 seats were won on less than 1% of the vote
2019 Conservatives gained 44% of votes and 56% of seats
FPTP - advantages
- Simplicity - simple system that produces a quick result. This leads to fewer spoilt ballots.
- Strong government produces a clear winner with a mandate to fulfil their manifesto commitments without the compromise of coalition.
- Constituency link - clear link with a representative and an area providing effective accountability.
- Centrist policies - with third parties struggling too gain success under FPTP it ensures that moderate politics are kept to have the largest base.
FPTP - disadvantages
- Lack of voter choice - two party system gives voters lack of choice leading to reduced turnout
- Unequal vote value - with uneven constituency standards and safe seats one persons vote can be far more valuable than others + No majority needed - to win in a seat only a plurality is needed. This undermines a legitimacy and wastes those who votes for a losing candidate.
- Disproportionate result - compared to the percentages received the two main parties are far over-represented.
Development in FPTP
- More safe seats - significant jump in 2015 21 seats were won by more than 50% in 2017 35 were won by more than 50%
- Disproportionate results - 2015 UKIP 12.5% only 1 seat. SNP 4.7% but 56 seats
- Failed to deliver strong and stable government - FPTP has produced one stable government since 2010.
AMS advantages
- Proportional result - the second stage of AMS tries to correct the flaws of FPTP. The more seats gained in the constituency vote, the harder it is to gain regional seats as it will be divided by a higher number. This reduces the wasted votes and ensure more parties have a chance of being represented.
- Split-ticket voting - Voters have two votes to cast and they can chooses different parties. This encourages more parties to run especially in the regional elections.
- Government with broad popularity - in order to form a single party government, a party must have broad popularity across a whole country.
- Greater representation - with all areas being represented by constituency and regional representatives, there is more chance someone shares a voters ideology increasing turnout.
- MP constituency link - each constituency is a relatively small geographic are. Each mp is attached and responsible to a group of voters
AMS disadvantages
- More complicated - what happens is not clear. This can put voters off who think their vote will be mathematically manipulated.
- Unlikely single-party government - proportional means single-parties harder to form
- FPTP used - still used with its disadvantages
- Different types of representation - AMS creates two tiers of representatives
- Party control - in regional vote the party controls the order of the candidates. Thee voters can only choose whether to support this list or not.
AMS function
- Constituency vote - Scotland is divided into 73 small constituencies done in a FPTP plurality form.
- Regional vote - done using the d’Hondt formula each party running draws up a list oof candidates for each region, ranking them in the order they will be elected.
STV function
Northern Ireland divided into 18 large regions with six representatives. Voters rank and then votes are redistributed using the droop quota. Votes are redistributed until all 6 seats of a region are filled
STV advantages
- Proportional result - STV is the most proportional result giving the greatest legitimacy.
For example, 2022 election Sinn Fein won 29% of first preference votes and 30% of seats.
- Voter choice - voters have a greater degree of choice within parties so they might vote for a different candidate from the same party.
- Greater representation - like AMS multi-member constituencies mean a voter is likely to have someone elected who shares their ideology.
STV - disadvantages
- More complicated - what happens with votes is not simple which could reduce turnout
- Unlikely a single party government - the proportional nature of the system means a coalition is a likely result.
- Constituency link - the link between representatives and local area is weaker as multiple come from one constituency
SV function
Voters are given a ballot paper with two lists. Once the first vote is counted if a candidate has a majority they win. If there is no majority the second round votes are counted giving a candidate a clear majority.
For example, 2021 Sadiq Khan received 40% first preference and 70% second preference, giving him 55% overall.
SV - advantages
- Majority result - ensures winning candidate has majority of votes, leading to a strong and stable government.
- Voter choice - voters have more choice than in FPTP knowing they can vote for a smaller party if they wish. but still use their second preference to ensure a vote is not wasted.
- Simple system - unlike proportional systems, SV is easy to understand in how they are cast and counted
- Extremist parties - requiring the winner to gain a majority ensures that fringe parties will be unsuccessful
SV - disadvantages
- Two party dominance - elimination of all but two candidates preserves two party dominance.
- False majority - with the second round voting, the candidate still might not be winning a true majority
- Wasted votes - large amount of votes with no impact
- Tactical voting - SV might encourage tactical voting.
