elections in the UK

Question 1

what elections are there in the UK?

Answer 1

-General elections, all seats in the commons come up for re-election takes place every five years.
-Devolved assembly elections, elections to Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies usually every 4 years.
-local elections, elections to districts, borough and county councils and elections for city mayours.

Question 2

what are the functions of elections?

Answer 2

-form governments and remove unwanted governments
-ensure representation
-enable participation and uphold legitimacy
-educate the electorate.

Question 3

why can the legitimacy of the representation be called into question?

Answer 3

-elected on less than 50% of the vote
-under other systems smaller parties can gain greater influence than their vote share suggests they should have.

Question 4

example of the legitimacy of representation being questioned?

Answer 4

-2019 229 out of 650 MPs were elected in their constituency with less than 50% support from their constituents.
-voters have little say about which candidates are selected to stand in their constituency
-safe seat votes are worthless

Question 5

how do elections improve legitimacy?

Answer 5

-elections play a crucial role in enabling participation which in turn makes elections legitimate.
-but called into question with the decline of participation.

Question 6

how do elections educate the public? and how has this been called into question?

Answer 6

-parties need to explain their policies and to persuade voters that their solutions or answers to key problems are better than the alternatives.
-elections can include misinformation, half-truths, untruths and fake news and political solutions are simplified to slogans when in reality the politics is far more complex, for example ‘Get Brexit Done’

Question 7

how do elections enhance democracy?

Answer 7

-general elections serve to transfer power from one government to the next in a peaceful and stable way.
-elections are a vital channel of communication between government and the people.
-elections play a crucial role in enabling participation which in turn makes elections legitimate.
-elections educate the public as one of their key functions.

Question 8

how do elections not enhance democracy?

Answer 8

-elections may not always be successful in forming governments in a stable way.
-doubts have also been raised about the effectiveness of elections in ensuring representation.
-elections may not always be successful in upholding legitimacy due to FPTP and turnout.
-elections can also mis-educate the public with half truths and fake news.

Question 9

what are non-proportional election systems?

Answer 9

-larger parties typically win a higher proportion of seats than the proportion of votes they gain in the election and increases the chances of a single party gaining a parliamentary majority and being able to govern on its own.

Question 10

what are proportional election systems?

Answer 10

-guarantee an equal or at least a close and reliable relationship between the seats won by parties and the votes gained in an election.

Question 11

what are the 4 different types of election systems used in the UK?

Answer 11

-plurality
-majority
-hybrid
-proportional

Question 12

what is a plurality system?

Answer 12

-the largest number out of a collection of numbers, for example the winner only needs one more vote than the second place candidate.

Question 13

what is a majority system?

Answer 13

-winning candidate must receive an overall majority of at least 50% of the vote.

Question 14

what is a hybrid system?

Answer 14

-uses both plurality and proportional elements to achieve a more proportional outcome than plurality would alone but less than proportional would alone.

Question 15

what is a proportional system?

Answer 15

-system that tends to represent parties in-line with their electoral support, often portrayed as proportional representation.

Question 16

example of a proportional system?

Answer 16

-northern Ireland Assembly, single transferable votes.

Question 17

example of a plurality system?

Answer 17

-FPTP and UK General Election.

Question 18

example of a Hybrid system?

Answer 18

-additional member system and Scottish Parliament.

Question 19

what are the implications of safe seats/wasted votes?

Answer 19

-safe seats were the cause of 22 million wasted votes in 2015, half the electorate.
-voters lack real choice because they cannot effect the outcome.
-bad for democracy as hard to hold to account and unlikely to ever be removed.
-voters lack real choice as they cannot effect the outcome.
-votes aren’t the same value as non-safe seats.
-encourages parties to give-up or ignore some seats.
-harder for smaller parties to be elected.

Question 20

what are the implications of marginal seats?

Answer 20

-parties concentrate their efforts on marginal seats.
-character and policies of the candidate becomes more important in marginal seats.
-may result in tactical voting and raises the question as to wether voters have a real choice.

Question 21

example of FPTP working against small parties?

Answer 21

-UKIP 2015, 3,381,099 votes and only got 1 seat.

Question 22

advantages of the Additional Member System?

Answer 22

-allows voters to make wider and more considered choices.
-allows voters to express personal support for a candidate while voting for a different party with their second vote.
-every voter has at least one effective vote and this removes the electoral desert effect.

Question 23

disadvantages of the Additional Member System?

Answer 23

-constituency representation is less effective than FPTP, because of the larger size of constituencies and because a proportion of representatives have no constituency duties.
-system creates confusion by having two classes of representative, many are accountable to party leaderships more than they are to voters.
-it can be complicated, people can become confused over exactly what they are supposed to do with their two votes.

Question 24

advantages of supplementary vote?

Answer 24

-simple to understand and would be easy for voters to use, it is familiar and the constituency boundaries would stay the same, all that would change would be the ballot papers.
-maintains traditional links between MPs and their constituencies and those elected would usually have the support of the majority of their constituents.
-like FPTP it penalises extremist parties who are unlikely to gain many first preference votes.

Question 25

disadvantages of supplementary vote?

Answer 25

-fewer votes are wasted but does not guarantee that the winner does secure 50% of both first and second preference.
-does not produce very proportional results and would still under represent smaller parties.
-because SV only lets voters express two choices it is possible for a high number of the voters first choice to be excluded round 1 and for their second choice not to be in round 2.

Question 26

arguments to keep FPTP?

Answer 26

-it is easy to understand and produces a clear result in each constituency and the result is known quickly.
-produces one single representative for each constituency and so creates a close constituency MP bond.
-helps prevent small parties breaking into the system and is useful if the small parties are undesirable extremists.

Question 27

arguments to get rid of FPTP?

Answer 27

-the overall outcome is not proportional and therefore is not representative and so is not fair, some parties receive more seats than their support warrants while others get less than they deserve.
-it means that may votes are effectively wasted because they have no impact on the outcome in safe seats, many seats become part of party ‘heartlands’ where there is no possibility of a realistic challenge from other parties, it also produces electoral deserts where there is effectively no party competition.
-it prevents new parties from breaking into the system and produces political ‘inertia’

Question 28

reasons for and against 16 year olds getting the vote?

Answer 28

-FOR:
-many policies effect 16 and 17 year olds like education, minimum wage.
-encourages young people to get involved in politics and educate themselves.
-did engage in the scottish independence referendum, 75% of 16-18 and higher than turnout of 25-34 year olds
-AGAINST:
-18-24 have the lowest turnout at 43% in 2015 surely 16-17 will be lower
-lack life experience
-there has not been loud demands.

Question 29

what were the events and significance of the 2017 election?

Answer 29

-May called the election while 20 points ahead in the polls she lost parties majority and Corbyn gained 10% of the vote share and led to agreement with DUP.
-she called it to increase majority after Brexit and needed strong and stable government and wanted her own mandate to govern.

Question 30

what long term and short term factors shaped the outcome of the 2017 election?

Answer 30

-showed further evidence of class and partisan dealignment
-lead amongst BME voters and increased to 54 points.
-swing to lab amongst 25-34 voters and swing to con among over 55s.
-con large 17 point leader amongst those with no qualifications and lab had 15 point lead amongst those with those educated to below degree level.

Question 31

outcome and significance of the 2019 general election?

Answer 31

-Boris Johnson won an 80 seat majority
-after appointed in July 2019 determined to get Brexit done.

Question 32

what is the typical size of the cabinet?

Answer 32

-20 to 30 members.

Question 33

what is presidential PM and examples?

Answer 33

-not ‘first amongst equals’ in the cabinet but instead plays a role that appears far more important and significant than anyone else in the political system.
-Blair and Thatcher.

Question 34

events and outcomes of the 1979 election?

Answer 34

-labour previously had suffered the loss of a number of MPs and repeated crises and by 1979 public opinion had turned against and con won by 339 seats to 269.
-class dealignment in the working class and key issue of the election was the winter of discontent and the economy