Elections and Voting

Question 1

what is a plurality/FPTP electoral system?

Answer 1

Lead to one group having all of the power and can be dangerous to new or weak democracies
This can lead to where people feel they have no power in government (Zero-sum)
Countries: Britain US Canada Nigeria India and Bangladesh
One person per riding and they represent the riding in parliament
Districting: one person per riding
Ballot structure: Nominal
The party that wins the most ridings and has the most representatives in the House of Commons

Question 2

What are the benefits and drawbacks of the plurality system?

Answer 2

Benefits:
Stable government/one political party
Representatives connected to a geographic territory
Vote for candidates, not political parties
Drawbacks:
Seats often don’t reflect the vote
Exaggerates regional differences
Majority elusive but disincentive for coalitions
Under-representation of minority views within regions
Treats small parties unevenly
Tactical voting
Gerrymandering

Question 3

What is Gerrymandering?

Answer 3

changing riding boundaries to your advantage (if a riding is split you fucked so politicians will have gerrymander’s change the ridings)

Question 4

What is a majority electoral system?

Answer 4

Districting: One person per riding
Ballot structure: nominal or ordinal
Party List
vote for a political party
Candidates chose from open or closed party list
Districting: multimember
Ballot structure: nominal (closed list) ordinal (open list)
Proportional representation electoral system
usually lead to coalitions
Could be different ethnic or religious groups therefore uniting the two groups
Helped to reduce divisive religious cleavages — PR coalition helped them to learn to work together

Question 5

What is a party-list electoral system?

Question 6

What is a single transferable vote electoral system?

Answer 6

Districting: 3-5 people per riding
Ballot structure: ordinal
Strongest for regional representation
You need to get enough votes to get past the threshold
20% each then you win the seats
If a candidate cot 40% because they were super pop they would already have passed the threshold – then take the second choice – or they might take all the votes for the 40% and put it to the second choice at half value keep doing this down the line

Question 7

What is mixed member proportional representation electoral system? (MMP)

Answer 7

The voter has 2 votes your nominal vote is voting for one candidate to represent you (FPTP plurality) and a political party (Party-list)
What % did each party get - that’s the % of seats that they get
Districting - one person riding
Voting is nominal
In Germany, you need min 5% of the party vote to have seats in the legislature but in other countries, the threshold is higher

Question 8

What are the benefits and drawbacks of an MMP electoral system?

Answer 8

Benefits:
Legislature reflects the way people have voted
Political party platforms are emphasized
Small parties have a voice
Drawbacks:
Potential government instability
Limited geographic representation
Closed list