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Politics > Electoral Systems > Flashcards

Electoral Systems Flashcards

1
Q

What is voter choice?

A
  • How many votes voters get
  • How many candidates or parties are there
  • How much influence their vote has
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2
Q

What is representation and proportionality?

A
  • correlation between votes cast and seats won
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3
Q

What is MP-Constituency link?

A
  • the extent to which the MP is responsive to the constituents
  • number of representatives per voter
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4
Q

What are the functions of elections?

A
  • Representation
  • Choosing a gov - voters Grant it legitimacy
  • Accountability
  • Participation, influence over policy
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5
Q

Where is FPTP used?

A
  • UK general elections
  • local council elections in England and Wales
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6
Q

How does FPTP work?

A
  • Voters cast a single vote
  • 650 constituencies
  • simple plurality system, candidate with largest number of votes wins
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7
Q

Advantages of FPTP? (speed and simplicity)

A
  • extremely easy to use for voters
  • result often known next morning (2019, first constituency result for Newcastle Central announced the same day)
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8
Q

Advantage of FPTP? (Strong gov)

A
  • results in clear majority for one party strong mandates
  • helps gov be accountable
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9
Q

Advantage of FPTP? (Exclusion of extremist groups)

A
  • success under FPTP requires geographically concentrated support
    -2010, British National Party (extreme right wing) won 2% of national vote but didn’t get higher than 3rd in any constituency (but won 2 seats in European Parliament elections with 6.2% of votes)
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10
Q

Advantage of FPTP? (MP-Constituency Link)

A
  • small size of most FPTP constituencies
  • single MP responsible for each
  • oct 2022, 33 con MPs rebelled against Liz Truss, abstained in a vote on banning fracking. MP Mark Fletcher had strong local movement against fracking
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11
Q

Disadvantages of FPTP? (representation)

A
  • over half of MPs don’t get majority support in their constituency, with even lower support when turnout considered
  • 2015, Alasdair McDonnell of SDLP won with 24.5% of vote in Belfast Central. Polled 14.7% of electorate when 60% turnout taken into account
  • weakens mandate of each MP, lack legitimacy
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12
Q

Disadvantage of FPTP? (Proportionality)

A
  • votes not translated into seats with any real accuracy
  • winner’s bonus, exaggerated support for biggest party (2019 con party won 56% of seats with 43.6% of vote)
  • parties with concentrated support win more (2015 UKIP won 12.6% of votes but 0.2% of seats
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13
Q

Disadvantage of FPTP? (Limited voter choice)

A
  • each party puts forward only one candidate, no choice between different strands of party
  • voters only get one choice, can’t fully reflect their views
  • wanted votes
  • tactical voting (YouGov found that 32% of voters voted tactically in 2019)
  • safe and marginal seats
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14
Q

Disadvantage of FPTP? (Ineffective choosing of gov)

A
  • single party gov can be seen as negative (they don’t command majority of votes)
  • recently it has failed to deliver single party majority govs (2010 coalition, 2017 minority gov)
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15
Q

Why is FPTP used in general elections?

A
  • it suits the interests of two main parties, who. Have monopolised gov since WWII
  • Labour offered referendum on it in 1997 manifesto but had no incentive to deliver it after wining large majority
  • 2011 AV referendum only agreed on by Con after Lib Dem insisted during coalition negotiations
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16
Q

Where is Additional Member System (AMS) used?

A
  • Scottish Parliament elections
  • Welsh Assembly
  • Greater London assembly
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17
Q

How does AMS work?

A
  • voters have 2 votes
  • one for constituency representative (FPTP) and other for party list (multi member regional constituencies)
  • party list element ‘corrects’ constituency element by using D’Hondt formula to determine how many members a party should be allocated from lists
  • fewer list members than const. representatives, they are known as ‘additional’ or ‘top up’ members
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18
Q

Advantages of AMS? (Proportionality)

A
  • top up party it’s system introduces proportionality
  • 1999 Scottish parliament election, Con won 0 const. MPs despite getting 15.6% of vote, but then won 18 additional member seats. They got 14% of seats overall
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19
Q

Advantages of AMS? (MP-Constituency link)

A
  • constituency element ensures there is stil a strong lnik
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20
Q

Advantages of AMS? (Voter choice)

A
  • wider choice than under FPTP
  • ‘split-ticket’ - one party for representative and another for top up vote
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21
Q

Advantages of AMS? (Strong gov)

A
  • coalition govs in Scotland and Wales have proved to be stable and there have not been frequent changes of gov
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22
Q

Disadvantages of AMS? (Representation/proportionality)

A
  • in smaller assemblies, not enough seats for top up to correct well
  • bias to constituency members = less representative system
  • 2021 Senedd election , Green Party won 1.6% of constituency votes and 4.4% of top up votes but no seats
23
Q

Disadvantages of AMS? (Strong gov)

A
  • minority and coalition gov more likely
  • in the 6 Scottish govs since devolution, 3 have been coalition, 2 have been minority
24
Q

Why is AMS used?

A
  • chosen as compromise that results in broadly representative parliament, but not as radical as STV
  • Labour thought it would help them be part of Scottish gov which worked until 2007
25
Q

Where is Single Transferable Vote (STV) used?

A
  • NI assembly elections
  • Scottish councils
26
Q

How does STV work?

A
  • multi member constituencies
  • Voters number choices preferentially
  • to be elected, candidate must achieve quota (Droop formula)
  • if candidate reaches quota, they are elected, and second preferences redistributed
  • no one reaches quote, last one eliminated
    -continues until all seats filled
27
Q

Advantages of STV? (Proportionality)

A
  • extremely proportional
  • very close correlation between votes and seats
28
Q

Advantages of STV? (Voter choice)

A
  • very high choice
  • can choose between candidates of same party and different parties
  • they get multiple votes by ranking candidates
29
Q

Advantages of STV? (Strong gov)

A
  • In NI, creates power sharing gov, makes two rival communities work together (helped end 30 years of the Troubles) WITH majority support
30
Q

Disadvantages of STV? (MP-constituency link)

A
  • due to have multmemebr constituencies, it may be very weak
31
Q

Disadvantages of STV? (Strong gov)

A
  • powe sharing govs may bring rival groups together, but they are still prone to conflict
  • NI executive has been suspended several times
  • Voting cross community lines still rare
32
Q

Disadvantages of STV? (Speed)

A
  • counting votes is slow
  • results difficult to understand
  • leads to donkey voting
  • 2019 NI elections in District Electoral Areas, between two candidates running for same party, the one with surname first elected 85% of time, second was only 54%
33
Q

Why is STV used where it is?

A
  • highly proportional
  • bc of conflict, important to avoid single party domination, could derail peace process
  • representatives represent religious communities more than geographical ones so so lack of single member const. Doesnt matter
34
Q

Where is Supplementary Vote (SV) used?

A
  • used in London Mayor elections
  • Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales
35
Q

How does SV work?

A
  • voter has 1st and 2nd preference vote
  • Any candidate that receives majority of first preference vote is elected
  • if that doesn’t happen, all candidates but top 2 eliminated and 2nd preference votes for top 2 added to make winner
36
Q

Advantages of SV?

A
  • ensures broad support for winner (Sadiq Khan has largest personal mandate of any elected politician in British history)
  • simple and straightforward
  • greater choice than FPTP
  • has allowed independent candidates to win (12 out of 40 elected police and crime commissioners were independents in 2012)
37
Q

Disadvantages of SV?

A
  • winner doesn’t need absolute majority
  • least unpopular candidates win instead of most popular
  • still wasted votes, even if less than in FPTP
38
Q

Comparison of AMS, STV, FPTP? (Voter choice)

A
  • STV>AMS>FPTP
  • STV and AMS more choice and less wasted votes
  • voter choice at expense of simplicity? (In 2007, in Scotland 146,000 ballots were incorrectly completed)
39
Q

Comparison of STV, AMS, FPTP? (representation and proportionality)

A
  • STV>AMS>FPTP
  • FPTP deviates 20% from mean, 11% for AMS (Scotland)/15% (Wales), 7% STV
  • but proportionality at the expense of single party gov?
40
Q

Comparison of STV, AMS and FPTP? (MP-Constituency link)

A
  • FPTP>AMS>STV
  • importance shouldn’t be overstated, many vote are based on parties and party leaders rather than local MPs
41
Q

Name some important UK wide referendums?

A
  • 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum
  • 2016 Brexit Referendum
42
Q

What was the 2011 Alternative vote referendum about? And its outcome?

A
  • Should Alternative vote replace FPTP
  • 68% NO
  • 42.2% turnout
43
Q

What was the Brexit referendum about and wat was the outcome

A
  • Should the UK still be a member of the EU
  • 52% leave
  • 72.2% turnout
44
Q

What important referendums have there been in Scotland, Wales and NI

A
  • 1997 Scottish Devolution referendum
  • 1997 Welsh Devolution referendum
  • 1998 NI Good Friday Agreement referendum
  • 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum
45
Q

2014 Scottish independence referendum results

A
  • 55.3% NO
  • 84.6% turnout
46
Q

What were the key issues surrounding the Scottish independence referendum?

A
  • further devolution
  • currency
  • EU membership
  • Trident
  • North Sea Oil
47
Q

What happened following the Brexit referendum?

A
  • Cameron resigned as PM and replaced by Theresa May
    -Brexit defined UK politics for 4 years before COVID hit
  • strong second referendum movement put to and end by con winning 2019 election
48
Q

How are referendums regulated?

A
  • electoral commission
  • checks wording of referendum questions
  • manages campaign expenditure
  • produce report following referendum on campaign and spending
49
Q

Arguments FOR referendums? (Improve democracy)

A
  • directly involve people in decision making
  • holding them inbetween general elections allows ppl to have their say more frequently
50
Q

Arguments FOR referendums? (Legitimacy)

A
  • by having clear public support fo a change, the policy gets a lot of legitimacy
  • e.g Good Friday Agreement
51
Q

Arguments FOR referendums? (Political awareness)

A
  • Scottish independence referendum has been praised for giving an opportunity to air wide range of issues (e.g impact on economy)
  • higher turnouts than in general elections
52
Q

Arguments AGAINST referendums? (Democracy)

A
  • ordinary people lack the expertise to make decisions on complex issues and can. be easily misled by politicians
  • 2016 Electoral Commission reported that arguments used by leaders of both campaigns used a degree of distortion ( likely futur level and negative impact of eu immigration to Uk overstated by Leave campaign)
53
Q

Arguments AGAINST referendum? (Partipation)

A
  • if arguments aren’t clearly explained to the public, turnout may be low
  • low turnout limits legitimacy of decision
  • 1997 Welsh devolution had turnout below 50%, cast a shadow over Welsh assembly for some time
54
Q

Arguments AGAINST referendums? (Intentions)

A
  • govs can choose when to hold referendums, often for their win political purposes
  • no consistency as to when they are called. And when they aren’t

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