Electoral Systems Flashcards
What are most people’s only form of political participation?
Elections
Three Functions of Elections
1) Political Participation
2) To influence party policy and its manifesto
3) To Choose a Govt
Three Electoral Systems
Plurality System - Where candidates win simply by getting more votes than the others
Majoritarian Systems - Where Candidates must get at least 51% of the vote to win
Proportional System - Multi-member constituencies where several representatives are chosen
Three advantages of FPTP
1) Strong and Stable Govt
2) Clear Majority
3) Simple plurality system
3 Disadvantages of FPTP
1) Wasted Votes - 2015, UKIP with 4m votes and 1MP
2) Disproportional Outcome
3) Forces Tactical Voting and Safe seats
3 Advantages of List PR
1) Highly Proportional Result - Scottish area 25% of winnings = 24% votes
2) More Access points
3) MP focussed on bigger picture
2 Disadvantages of List PR
1) Majorities Unlikely
2) Poor MP - Constituency Link
3) Complicated
3 Advantages of AMS
1) Broadly Proportional Result
2) All votes count - regional voting
3) Retains MP - Constituency Link
3 Disadvantages of AMS
1) Produces Minority Govt
2) Creates two classes of MP - some accountable to electorate and some accountable to party leaders
3) More Complicated than FPTP
3 Advantages of Single-Transferable-Vote
1) Proportionality - voters can select multiple parties and particular candidates
2) Fewer wasted Votes - excess votes for winner recounted
3) Fairer to third-parties - eliminates safe seats and tactical voting
3 Disadvantages of AMS
1) Produces Coalitions
2) Complicated System
3) Alphabet Voting
3 Advantages of Alternative Vote System (AV)
1) MPs maintain a majority = Strong Govt
2) No Safe Seats = Theoretically MPs campaign more and appeal to more voters
3) Constituent ‘happier’ with MP
3 Disadvantages of AV
1) Potentially less proportional than FPTP
2) More Coalitions - third parties can win more seats
3) Unequal Votes - candidates eliminated first will have their votes counted more times
Explain FPTP
Works on the Majoritarian principle that the candidate with the largest number of votes in each constituency wins the vote
Runners up receive no electoral reward
Explain AMS
Mixture of FPTP and List PR
Voters have two ballot papers and two votes; one for constituency representative and one for the parties in the region
More proportional vote that if the system was solely based on single-member constituency seats elected by FPTP
Explain the Single Transferable Vote
Multi-member constituencies where voters rank their choices in order of preference
A quota is worked out
A candidate that has more first preference votes than the quota is immediately elected
Surplus votes are transferred to other candidates in proportion to the second preference marked on the ballots receive by the candidates
Elimination and rounds continue until all seats are filled
Explain Alternative Votes
Under AV, voters adds a number by the name of each candidate, one for fave, two for second fave, etc
AV remains single-member constituencies and there is no quota
If a candidate recieves more than half the votes in the first stage they are elected.
If nobody gets half, whichever candidate comes last and their second preference votes are redistributed
This process is repeated until one candidate gets at least half the vote
Explain List PR
Area is bigger so (South East England) - 26 large constituencies each with 25 MPS
Parties rank candidates for the area
One seat allocated each round
