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
2
Q
What is representation and proportionality?
A
- correlation between votes cast and seats won
3
Q
What is MP-Constituency link?
A
- the extent to which the MP is responsive to the constituents
- number of representatives per voter
4
Q
What are the functions of elections?
A
- Representation
- Choosing a gov - voters Grant it legitimacy
- Accountability
- Participation, influence over policy
5
Q
Where is FPTP used?
A
- UK general elections
- local council elections in England and Wales
6
Q
How does FPTP work?
A
- Voters cast a single vote
- 650 constituencies
- simple plurality system, candidate with largest number of votes wins
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)
8
Q
Advantage of FPTP? (Strong gov)
A
- results in clear majority for one party strong mandates
- helps gov be accountable
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)
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
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
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
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
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)
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
16
Q
Where is Additional Member System (AMS) used?
A
- Scottish Parliament elections
- Welsh Assembly
- Greater London assembly
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
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
19
Q
Advantages of AMS? (MP-Constituency link)
A
- constituency element ensures there is stil a strong lnik
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
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
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
Where is Single Transferable Vote (STV) used?
- NI assembly elections
- Scottish councils
26
How does STV work?
- 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
Advantages of STV? (Proportionality)
- extremely proportional
- very close correlation between votes and seats
28
Advantages of STV? (Voter choice)
- very high choice
- can choose between candidates of same party and different parties
- they get multiple votes by ranking candidates
29
Advantages of STV? (Strong gov)
- In NI, creates power sharing gov, makes two rival communities work together (helped end 30 years of the Troubles) WITH majority support
30
Disadvantages of STV? (MP-constituency link)
- due to have multmemebr constituencies, it may be very weak
31
Disadvantages of STV? (Strong gov)
- 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
Disadvantages of STV? (Speed)
- 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
Why is STV used where it is?
- 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
Where is Supplementary Vote (SV) used?
- used in London Mayor elections
- Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales
35
How does SV work?
- 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
Advantages of SV?
- 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
Disadvantages of SV?
- winner doesn’t need absolute majority
- least unpopular candidates win instead of most popular
- still wasted votes, even if less than in FPTP
38
Comparison of AMS, STV, FPTP? (Voter choice)
- 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
Comparison of STV, AMS, FPTP? (representation and proportionality)
- 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
Comparison of STV, AMS and FPTP? (MP-Constituency link)
- FPTP>AMS>STV
- importance shouldn’t be overstated, many vote are based on parties and party leaders rather than local MPs
41
Name some important UK wide referendums?
- 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum
- 2016 Brexit Referendum
42
What was the 2011 Alternative vote referendum about? And its outcome?
- Should Alternative vote replace FPTP
- 68% NO
- 42.2% turnout
43
What was the Brexit referendum about and wat was the outcome
- Should the UK still be a member of the EU
- 52% leave
- 72.2% turnout
44
What important referendums have there been in Scotland, Wales and NI
- 1997 Scottish Devolution referendum
- 1997 Welsh Devolution referendum
- 1998 NI Good Friday Agreement referendum
- 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum
45
2014 Scottish independence referendum results
- 55.3% NO
- 84.6% turnout
46
What were the key issues surrounding the Scottish independence referendum?
- further devolution
- currency
- EU membership
- Trident
- North Sea Oil
47
What happened following the Brexit referendum?
- 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
How are referendums regulated?
- electoral commission
- checks wording of referendum questions
- manages campaign expenditure
- produce report following referendum on campaign and spending
49
Arguments FOR referendums? (Improve democracy)
- directly involve people in decision making
- holding them inbetween general elections allows ppl to have their say more frequently
50
Arguments FOR referendums? (Legitimacy)
- by having clear public support fo a change, the policy gets a lot of legitimacy
- e.g Good Friday Agreement
51
Arguments FOR referendums? (Political awareness)
- 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
Arguments AGAINST referendums? (Democracy)
- 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
Arguments AGAINST referendum? (Partipation)
- 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
Arguments AGAINST referendums? (Intentions)
- 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
