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Electoral Systems Flashcards

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1
Q

What is an electoral system?

A

The method used to calculate the number of elected positions in the government that individuals and parties are awarded after elections

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2
Q

What act sets fixed terms parliaments every five years?

A

Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011

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3
Q

Non-proportional electoral systems

A

They don’t have a close relationship between the % of votes cast for a party and the % of seats they gained

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4
Q

Proportional electoral systems

A

Far closer relationship between % of voters east and % of seats won in the parliament

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5
Q

Recruiting politicians

A

-promise of government posts are at disposal of the PM
-Elected via the vote from the constituencies
-MPs that displease constituents can be removed by voters in next election

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6
Q

Holding a government to account

A

-Voters reject an unpopular gov that’s ‘failed’ them
-Individual MPs can be accountable for their actions

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7
Q

What Act has strengthened the power of voters to remove poorly behaved MPs?

A

Recall of MPs Act 2015

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8
Q

Example of gov being held accountable

A

In 2009, MPs stood down rather than facing the voters at the general election the following year

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9
Q

Marginal seats

A

seats held by a small majoirty where a small swing to an opposition candidate can cause the seat to change hands

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10
Q

Minority government

A

A government that takes office but does not have a majority of seats, so passing legislation is difficult

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11
Q

Plurality

A

the result of an election where the winner only has to obtain more votes than any of their opponents, the winner doesn’t have an abosulte majority

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12
Q

How do we judge the success of an electoral system

A

-Equally weighed vote
-Allows for full representation (minor parties too)
-Electoral system is accessible
-trustworthy and accountable government is produced
-decisive and practical government

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13
Q

What is the Electoral Reform Society?

A

Campaign for a better democracy
-building alliances for electoral reform
-deepening public involvement in our democracy
-winning policy pledges to build a better democracy

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14
Q

How many countries are FPTP?

A

68
e.g: UK, US, India

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15
Q

What is FPTP?

A

An electoral system where the candidate with the largest votes is elected.

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16
Q

Advantages of FPTP

A

-easy to use
-clear majority is given to one party
-clear choice
-creates a strong and stable government
-provides a strong link between MPs and their constituencies

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17
Q

Disadvantages of FPTP

A

-freezes pattern of politics
-Vote share doesn’t equal seat share
-Safe seats suggest that voters may feel ignored in areas that are unlikely to change
-creates ‘safe seats’ and ‘swing seats’
-votes are of unequal value
-limited voter choice

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18
Q

Example of vote share not being equal to seat share

A

SNP winning 95% of Scotland seats but only half of Westminister

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19
Q

Party List System (closed)

A

Electors vote for a party in a multi-member constituency. Each party ranks their members, vote for a party, votes counted and quota decided, seats are won to those who meet the quota in eac constituency starting at the top of the party list

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20
Q

Party List System (open)

A

Each party ranks their members, elections held. The voter can vote for party list as it is OR vote for a specific member of the party list. If enough people do this, the ranking may change. Votes are counted and seats awarded.

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21
Q

Arguments in favour of Party List System

A

-guaranteed a hgih degree of party proportionality, e.g: 32%=32 seats
-every vote has the same value
-very simple for voters, who only have to make one choice for a party out of a small selection

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22
Q

Weakness of Party List System

A

-with closed party lists, voters have little or no effective choice over candidates (only control which party is in gov, not which MP)
-under represented groups are not well represented
-power is not in the hands of voters, instead its in the hands of party leadership
-little chance of voter accountability

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23
Q

What countries use the Party List System?

A

South Africa, Israel, Russia and in Britian for 1999 European Election

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24
Q

Single Transferable Vote System

A

Each constituency elects between 3 and 5 MPs. Voters rank their preferred candidates. A quota is decided and those who reach that quota are elected. The candidate with the lowest is eliminated and votes are redistributed to the 2nd ranks and so on

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25
Q

Pros of STV

A

-more proportional representation
-putting power in the hands of voters
-making parliament reflect the views of voters
-simple to use
-no need for tactical voting; vote will not be wasted
-strong and stable government because majority support them

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26
Q

Cons of STV

A

-takes much longer to count votes
-time consuming
-minority parties are eliminated from the start
-harder to form government
-breaks the link between MP and their constituency

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27
Q

Where is STVs used?

A

Australian Senate, Republic of Ireland, Malta

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28
Q

Alternative vote

A

voting system in which voters rank candidates (1 +2) and the votes of low-ranking candidates are reallocated until a winner is determined

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29
Q

Additional Member System

A

mix of simple plurality and proportional representation voting; voters cast a vote for a representative and for a political party

30
Q

How does AMS work?

A

Everyone ges 2 votes: 1 Local MP and 1 Reigonal/National Party List
-Votes are counted and whichever has majority (doesn’t have to be 50%) is selected as an MP. Voters are counted depending on percentage of votes for each party, extra MPs are elected. Both sets of elected reps go parliament.

31
Q

Pros of AMS

A

-encourages political diversity
-allows voter to make an expression of popular approval or disapproval
-enhances local representation
-gives smaller parties a chance

32
Q

Cons of AMS

A

-might give more wieght to minority parties
-complicated and time consuming
-has weaknesses of FPTP and PR

33
Q

Supplementary Vote

A

People have the choice to vote for TWO candidates. if a candidate gets 50% of the vote, candidate is elected.

If nobody gets 50%, everyone but the top 2 are eliminated and 2nd choice votes are counted. Whoever has the majority, wins.

34
Q

Pros of SV

A

-people can vote for more than one person
-winner must have a majority
-more choice
-one representative
-avoids radical + extremist parties
-easier than AV

35
Q

Cons of SV

A

-suffers from all the disadvantages of AV
-Unlike AV, SV does not ensure that the winning candidate has the support of at leat 50% of the electorate
-gets rid of minority parties

36
Q

Why has FPTP survived for Westminster elections?

A

The outcome produced suits the interests of the two largest parties
-Voters prefer this system
-Labour offered a referendum on FPTP but the majority preferred FPTP

37
Q

Why was AMS adopted for Scottish and Welsh devolved elections and for the Greater London Assembly?

A

-AMS was chosen as a compromise that would result in boradly representative parliament but without drastic change
-Wales had a weak devolution
-Greater London: reflected the views of the population
-AMS gave Labour representation in Scottish gov

38
Q

Why was SV used to elect mayor?

A

-simpler to use
-winner would have a clear mandate
-candidates with small support would be less likely to win as they were a ‘lowest common denominator’

39
Q

Why STV was adopted for the Northen Ireland Assembly?

A

-highly proportional and likely to ensure broadest possible representation of different parties
-important to avoid single party domination in ireland
-helped to end conflict in the Troubles

40
Q

How has voter turnout dropped?

A

72% in 1992 to 59% in 2005 and 69% in 2017

41
Q

National turnout of 2019 election?

A

67.26%

42
Q

Why was 2015 poor in representing the election result

A

-3.8M UKIP votes for one seat
-50% of the vote for SNP for 56/59 seats

43
Q

Impact of AMS on party represenation

A

Better representation of smaller parties
-Greens have 6 seats in Scotland
-UKIP picked up 7 reigonal seats in the Welsh 2016 election

44
Q

Why has there been so much electoral reform in the UK since 1997?

A

-FPTP creates governments which aren’t representative.
e.g: 1997 Labour election, Lib Dems secured 16.8% of total national vote but won fewer than 10% of the seats

45
Q

Why is electoral reform needed?

A

-FPTP in Westminister has produced a coaltion gov and AMS in Scotland has produced a single party government
-Major parties tend to dominate regardless of electoral system

46
Q

ARGUMENTS FOR- Should there be electoral reform for Westminister elections?

A

-election results have been more proportional, seat=vote
-Rise of multi party politics is reflected in election outcome with smaller parties winning seats
-voters have > choice as votes for smaller parties are less likely to be wasted

47
Q

ARGUMENTS AGAINST- Should there be electoral reform for Westminsiter elections?

A

-new systems aren’t always highly proportional in outcomes
-extremist parties have gained seats
-turnout is low in elections conducted under the new electoral system
-some systems are very confusing

48
Q

What is a referendum?

A

a popular vote on a specific issue

49
Q

Which three years have there been Nationwide Referendums in the UK?

A

-1975: Continued UK membership of European Economic Community

-2011:Electoral Reform for Westminister

-2016: Brexit Referendum

50
Q

1975 Continued UK membership of the European Economic Community

A

-turnout: 64.5%
-67.”% voted stay

51
Q

2011: Electoral Reform for Westminister

A

-turnout: 42.2%
-67.9% voted against AV

52
Q

2016 Brexit Referendum

A

-turnout: 72.2%
-51.9% voted yes

53
Q

Three reigonal referendums

A

-2014 Scottish Independence referendum
-1997 Devolution for Scotland and Wales
-1998 Devolution for Northern Ireland

54
Q

2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

A

-turnout: 84.6%
-55.3% voted no

55
Q

1997 Devolution for Scotland and Wales

A

-voter turnout: 74.3%
-64% voted ‘yes’

55
Q

1998 Devolution for Northern Ireland

A

-turnout:71%

56
Q

Impact of Referendums

A

-direct democracy
-Since 1997, it has become a convention that further changes to devolution should be approved by a referendum

57
Q

Why has electoral reform slowed down in recent years?

A

-coalition governments haven’t proved to be that unstable and managed to work somewhat efficiently
-PR provides a route for extremists into the political mainstream who would otherwise be excluded by the structure of FPTP
-PR produces weak coalition government rather than strong majoirty governements

58
Q

Should referendums be used in the UK? CASES AGAINST

A

-removes the purpose of the UK being a ‘represenatative democracy’
-General public aren’t politically educated enough, e.g: economical policies in a way that politicians are
-Over simplified into yes or no
-Only happens when the gov decide to happen with the idea that they will win

59
Q

Should referendums be used in the UK? ARGUMENTS FOR

A

-purpose of democracy is to give people a voice and referendums give this oppurtunity
-people do vote for MPs to make decisions BUT not to dictate huge decisions
-Because of the simplified nature, they are accesible to the people
-referendums settle disputes within the gov
-gives power to the people

60
Q

Advantages of Referendums

A

-political participation
-educational device
-legitmise significant constitutional changes
-gov is more responsive to public as it forces them to listen to opinion between elections

61
Q

Disadvantages of Referendums

A

-Undermines parliamentary sovereignty
-public opinion isn’t reliable
-ill-informed decisions (oversimplifies complex issues)
-Lack of participatin/low voter turnout
-tactical devce to strengthen gov (used when gov think they will win)

62
Q

Example of vote share not = seat share (1987)

A

Labour gained 10M votes (31% of total) and won 229 seats (32% of total) whilst SDP/Liberal won 7.3M votes, which was 23% of total but only won 22 seats, which is 3%.

63
Q

Example of Vote share not = to seat share in 2015

A
  • In 2015, UKIP won 13% of total votes but only got 0.2% of total seats (1 seat)
64
Q

What was the least disproportionate election?

A
  • In the 2017 general election, it was the least disproportionate election as the third and fourth parties had very decreased support, with focus on the two major parties.
65
Q

Why would disproportionality be an advantage?

A
  • First Past The post supporterss believe disproportionality is an advantage because the system exaggerates the lead of the winning party when translating votes to seats. Hence, one party can form a government as a majority and then be held accountable. This argument has faded because despite having a clear lead, there are coalition government, e.g: 2010, and the Confidence and Supply agreement between DUP and Conservatives in 2017.
66
Q

Example of regional imbalance and disproportionality

A
  • There is also regional imbalance and disproportionality because in the 2017 general election, 15% of MPs from North of England and Wales whilst Labour MPs were 56% and 53% of MPs were from South of England (outside London) with Labour MPs being only 8%.
67
Q

When was there bias for the labour party?

A

1997-2010

In 2005, the Labour party got 35% of the vote and got a large majority whilst in 2010, the Conservatives gained 36% of the vote but gained no majority.

68
Q

Reasons for electoral bias towards Labour in 1997-2010

A
  1. Scotland and Wales were overrepresented in terms of MPs and voted overwhelmingly Labour.
  2. Electorates in Conservative seats tend to be bigger than those in Labour seats. Labour seats in cities tend to lose population, so the electorates become smaller over time.
  3. Turnout was higher in Conservative seats than Labour.
  4. Labour votes more efficiently distributed, winning marginal seats rather than increasing majorities in safe seats.
69
Q

Example of AMS attracting more voters

A
  • . In 2016, in London, there were 12 parties on the party list ranging from animal welfare party to women’s equality party. In Scotland, in 2007, 2 regions had 23 parties to choose from as parties felt they had a better chance of winning.
70
Q

Example of AMS allowing minor parties to be successful

A
  • The Green Party has had more chances of representation in the Scottish parliament and the London Assembly and UKIP having chances in the Welsh Assembly.

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