Different Electoral Systems Flashcards
Criteria to Judge Electoral Systems (3)
(1) Voter Choice - how manny votes voters get and whether they can vote for more than one Party, how many candidates are standing, how much influence votes have on the outcome
(2) Representation and Proportionality - Judged by the correlation between votes cast and seats won
(3) Type of Government and Politics - how cooperative Parliament and Governance is
Functions of Elections (4)
1) Representation - speak on behalf of a community and provide a link between them and decision making
2) Choosing a Government - Choose a Government and grant legitimacy at elections
3) Holding the Incumbent Government and Representatives to account
4) Participation and influence over policy - judgements over manifestos
FPTP Explanation (3)
1) Used in UK Elections, Local Council Elections in England and Wales, Mayoral Elections in England
2) 650 Constituencies with roughly 75,000
3) Simple plurality system - the candidate with the largest number of votes is elected as an MP
4) Government formed my a majority
Advantages of FPTP: Speed and Simplicity (3)
1) Easy to use for voters who have to select one candidate/party - reset known early after polling day and Government formed with a swift transfer of power
2) Public support - AV Referendum with 68% support of FPTP
3) Proportional systems take longer and have to follow negotiations e.g. 2007 Scottish Parliament Election
Advantages of FPTP: Strong, Single Party Governments (2)
1) Promotes a two party system that gives voters a clear choice and usually results in a clear majority for one party with a strong mandate to carry out its programme and bring effective change - Governments are also accountable - gave Blair power to conduct Constitutional Reform
2) Starmer 2024 won a 174 seat majority with 33.7% of the vote and forces voters to face up to the fundamental choice
Advantages of FPTP: Exclusion of Extremist Parties
1) Less likely to have sucess e.g. BNP won 2% of the vote in 2010 but didn’t finish higher than 3rd in any Constituency compared to 2009 European Parliament Elections where they won 2 seats and 6.2% of votes
Advantages of FPTP - MP-Constituency Link (2)
1) Small constituencies leades to effective representation of local interests - e.g. Infected Blood Scandal ammendment supported by 22 Conservative MPs rebelling a three line whip
2) Handle correspondence from their constituents, problems their constituents have and hold weekly constituency surgeries e.g. MPs allocate 40% of time to Constituency matters and Jeremy Corbyn reelected
Disadvantages of FPTP - Lack of Representation in Constituencies (1)
1) Over half of MPs don’t command a majority of support within their constituency - in 2024, 58% of voters ended up with an MP they didn’t vote for which weakends the legitimacy
Disadvantages of FPTP - Lack of Proportionality at the National Level (4)
1) Votes not translated into seats with any real accuracy, voters feel the system lacks legitimacy - candidates who come 2nd/3rd with a large number of votes aren’t rewarded at all
2) Exaggerates support of the biggest party - the winner’s bonus - excess seats compared to votes e.g. Labour Party 2024 won 63% of the seats with 33.7% of the vote compared to 2019 where they won 32.1% of the vote but only 202 seats
3) Favours Parties whose vote is concentrated rather than spread out across a large geographical area - harms minor parties e.g. Lib Dems got 72 seats in 2024 compared to 11 seats in 2019 despite only winning slighly more of the vote
Disadvantages of FPTP - Limited Voter Choice (3)
(1) Only one candidate put forward by each Party - no choice between different strands of the main parties
(2) Only one vote - can’t rank their preferences, like a PR system and leads to tactical voting
(3) Votes are also of a greatly unequal value - the difference between safe and marginal seats
Disadvantages of FPTP - Ineffective Choosing of Governments (2)
1) Single Party Governments can be seen as negative - don’t command a majority of votes across the country and have major power in Parliament - limited legitimacy e.g. Labour 2024 174 Majority with 33.7% of votes
2) Failed to deliver single Party Governments recently in 2010 and 2017
2024 Election - Examples (4)
1) Gallagher Index - least proportional election since elections in the UK began
2) Labour and Lib Dems recieved far more seats despite vote share only marginally increasing
3) Minor parties increased their share of the vote to 30.4% of the vote in 2024 but were greatly underepresented in terms of seats e.g. Greens and Reform
4) Tactical Voting - Pressure Group MakeVotesMatter reported that 1.5 voters intended to vote tactically in 2024
How the 2024 Election can be used to Support Advantages of FPTP (4)
1) Speed and simplicity - first Constituency result announed at 23:15 on the day of the election
2) Creates strong, single party Governments with Labour winning a 174 seat majority with 33.7% of the vote
3) Can hold MPs to account by removing those who performed poorly when in office e.g. Liz Truss voted out with a huge 26.2% swing
4) Allows for an effective MP-Constituency link - Jeremy Corbyn reelected despite independent having been an MP since 1983
How the 2024 Election can be Used to Support Disadvantages of FPTP (5)
1) MPs are elected with limited support - 58% of voters ended up with an MP they didn’t vote for
2) Creates a winner’s bonus - gives a disproportionate seats to the biggest party e.g. Labour
3) Underrepresents the majority of minor parties e.g. Reform with 5 seats despite 14.3% of the vote
4) Forced to vote tactically - 1/5 of voters intended to vote tactically
5) Lack of voter choice due to votes attering more in marginal seats than safe seats
Why is FPTP used in UK Parliamentary Elections (3)
(1) The two main parties - have monopolised Government since WW11
(2) 2011 AV referendum was rejected by the electorate with 68% voting against, on a 42% turnout
Where is AMS used and how does it work?
(1) Used in elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Greater London Assembly
(2) Voters have two votes, one for a constituency representative elected using FPTP and another for a party list which uses multi-member regional constituencies - PR
Advantages of AMS (5)
(1) The ‘top up’ Party list element introduces an element of proportionality that corrects the disproportionality of FPTP
(2) The Constituency element ensures a strong MP-Constituency link remains
(3) Voters have a wider choice than under FPTP
(4) Votes are less likely than FPTP to be wasted
(5) Worst predictions made by critics of PR have not been fulfilled - coalition Governments have been largely stable
Disadvantages of AMS (3)
(1) Creates two different types of members, some with constituency responsibilities and some without
(2) In smaller assemblies, there are sometimes too few seats for the top up element to correct the constituency element effectively
(3) AMS is more likely to lead to minority and coalition Governments
The Breakdown of the Scottish Government in April 2024 (3)
(1) The coalition between the SNP and the Greens, broke down - Humza Youssaf decided to end the coalition agreements after the Greens strongly criticised the SNP
(2) The Greens supported the No Confidence motion against Youssaf who later resigned - the coalition Government was vulnerable to instability
Why is AMS used in elections to the Scottish Parliament and Greater London
Assembly? (2)
(1) AMS was chosen as a compromise that would result in a broadly representative parliament but not involve the radical change of STV, which the Liberal Democrats advocated for, and maintain local representation
(2) Labour expected AMS would enable it to play a part in government in Scotland and this proved correct until 2007
Wales’ Change to a Closed Party List System from 2026
(1) Passed the Sennedd Cymru Bill in July 2024 - wanted to replace it with a closed party list system with an increased number of representatives for the next election
Why did Wales change? (2)
(1) Simplify the voting system by giving voters just one vote and ballot paper
(2) To make the system more proportional , there were only 20 topup members before
How has Wales’ new system been criticised? (3)
(1) Removes the link between representatives and their constituents
(2) Gives too much power over who is selected
(3) This wouldn’t allow voters to remove members who breach standards after an election
Where is STV used and how does it work? (4)
(1) Used in elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Scottish Councils
(2) It uses multi-member constituencies, in the case of the Northern Ireland Assembly there are 18 each returning 5 members where voters number their choices preferentially
(3) A candidate needs to achieve a quota in order to be elected
(4) The results are calculated using a complex counting process where second preferences are taken into account
Advantages of STV (4)
(1) Highly proportional system
(2) Voter choice is very high
(3) Candidates have to compete against other candidates from their own party - MP Constituency link
(4) In Northern Ireland it has created power sharing Governments allowing rival communities to work together
Disadvantages of STV (3)
(1) Rival groups still prone to conflict - NI Executive has been suspended many times (40% of existence)
(2) Counting votes is slow and results are difficult to understand
(3) It can lead to donkey voting
Stormont Suspended Between 2022 and 2024
The DUP refused to go into coalition with Sinn Fein in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol
Why is STV used where it is? (2)
(1) Highly proportional - best possible representation of different parties
(2) Avoids single party domination - could create further conflict
How does SV used and how does it work? (3)
(1) Used in elections for London Mayor and other elected mayors, as well as Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales - been scrapped following Elections Act 2022
(2) Each voter is allowed a first and second preference vote
(3) Any candidate who receives more than 50% of the first preference votes is selected automatically. If this doesn’t occur, all candidates except the top two are eliminated and second preference votes for the two candidates are added to produce an overall winner
Advantages of SV (4)
(1) It ensures broad support for the winner - Sadiq Khan had the largest personal mandate
(2) Simple and straightforward to use
(3) It gives voters a greater choice than FPTP
(4) It allowed some independent candidates to win
Disadvantages of SV (3)
(1) The winner doesn’t need to get an absolute majority of votes cast
(2) To have influence of the outcome, the voters have to identify the likely top two candidates
(3) The least unpopular candidates are likely to win rather than most popular
Why was SV used for elected mayors? (1)
(1) Both AV and SV were considered, but SV was chosen because it was simpler to use
