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British Politics > Electoral Systems > Flashcards

Electoral Systems Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 8 main factors when looking at voting systems?

A

Proportionality
Vote Value
Promoting participation
Strong and accountable government
Local links
Power of the party
Party choice and representation
Comprehenibility and transparency

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2
Q

Proportionality

A

Proportion of seats won should correspond to the overall percentage of vote.

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3
Q

Vote Value

A

ALl votes should be equal and no one should feel that theirs is being wasted

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4
Q

Promoting participation

A

Should incentivise high levels of turnout. Often created when vote value is high.

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5
Q

Strong and accountable government

A

Voters should feel that any government is able to deliver its promises, but they can also hold said government accountable.

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6
Q

Local links

A

MPs represent the region, so they should be able to be spoke to and a good electoral system will encourage this with the constituencies

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7
Q

Power of the party

A

Many voters want an electoral system that allows them to choose between different candidates from the same party, preventing too much power being given to the central party.

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8
Q

Party choice and representation

A

The electoral system should encourage and enable a broad range of parties to stand in elections

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9
Q

Comprehensibility and transparency

A

The system should be easy to understand and produce clear results.

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10
Q

What is First Past the Post

A

-Candidate with most number of votes in each constituency wins the election
-Most MPs won wins the election
-Party leader becomes PM

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11
Q

Analyse First Past the post by Proportionality factor

A

The number of seats won does not directly link to the votes cast. For example in 2019 the conservatives won 77 more seats than their proportion of the overall vote. In the same election, the Green party won 2.7% of the vote but just one seat (0.2% of the vote).

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12
Q

What is Winner’s bonus?

A

-FPTP exaggerates the performance of the most popular part as they win more seats than their proportional vote.
-Weakens the proportionality of the electoral system.

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13
Q

What is an example of winners bonus?

A

In 1997, Blair won 63% of seats but only got 43 of the votes.

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14
Q

Analyse FPTP in terms of vote value.

A

Many votes are wasted as if someone supports labour but lives in a safe seat for the opposite party their vote does not count.
It is much harder for smaller parties to break through as psychologically they believe their votes do not matter and FPTP makes it difficult to win seats.

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15
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to participation.

A

Some argue that FPTP discourages participation especially from smaller parties as they believe their vote doesn’t matter.
However, it also gives people a closer relation to their party MP, encouraging voting.

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16
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to creating a strong and accountable government

A

Traditionally, it has produced clear results, especially true for the 1979-2010 period. However, it can also produce hung parliaments where no one has a majority such as in 2010. But is a hung parliament really that weak?

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17
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to local links.

A

Every constituency has its own MP, and there is 650 constituencies so lots of very local MPs who can represent their local interests.

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18
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to the power of the party.

A

FPTP does not directly allow voters to pick between different candidates, however because candidates are selected by local part membership the power of the central party is more limited.

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19
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to party choice and representation

A

Although it discriminates against smaller parties, a fair range of parties are represented, especially when compared with US congress. Also, most constituencies offer a wide range of candidates from different parties, so the choice is there even if chances of success are low.

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20
Q

Analyse FPTP in relation to comprehensibility.

A

FPTP scores highly as it is simple to understand and provides a clear and quick result soon after the election

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21
Q

How are constituencies drawn up for FPTP?

A

Drawn up by independent boundary commissions every 8-12 years.

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22
Q

How many constituencies are there in the UK?

A
  1. Was a plan in 2016 to reduce to 600 but didn’t happen when boundaries were redrawn in 2023.
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23
Q

How many people should each constituency contain?

A

69,777-77,002

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24
Q

What happened to Labour in Feb 1974?

A

TThey lost 5.9% of the vote but gained 20 seats. This shows how unproportional FPTP is especially from election to election.

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25
Q

Which areas does FPTP score highly in?

A

Arguably in Participation
Arguably in Strong government
Local Links
Comprehensibility
Arguably in representation
Power of the party.

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26
Q

Which areas does FPTP not score highly in?

A

Proportionality
Vote Value

27
Q

What are the 3 main arguments for electoral reform in the UK?

A

-Party with most votes doesn’t always gain the most seats
-Discriminates against smaller parties
-Many single party governments are elected on low share eg: conservatives with just 37% of vote.

28
Q

What is Additional member system?

A

-A hybrid system with two sets of votes
-There is one set of votes which functions like FPTP
-The people then vote for their favourite political party
-Party leaders have a list of who their extra seats will be go to
-Extra seats are then assigned to make the number of seats more representative of the actual votes each party got.

29
Q

Analyse additional member system via proportionality.

A

As a hybrid between FPTP and List PR, it falls between the two. It is proportional as the number of seats typically matches the percentage of people who want each political party.

30
Q

What is an example of AMS being proportional?

A

Scottish Green Party didn’t win any constituency seats, but won 2/16 of seats overall, which was a fair reflection of its 11% share of the vote.

31
Q

Analyse AMS via Vote value

A

There is less chance of votes being wasted, though the smallest parties remain unlikely to secure any seats due to seats being awarded on a regional not national list.

32
Q

Analyse AMS via participation.

A

There is no clear proof that AMS boosts turnout.

33
Q

Analyse AMS via creating a strong government

A

It almost inevitably produces a minority government, yet in neither Scotland or Wales has this led to frequent political instability, deadlock or early elections.

34
Q

Analyse AMS via Local links

A

AMS’ constituency members, elected via FPTP, encourages local link not present with List PR. However, it also creates a two tiered system of elected representatives, meaning those who are elected via being top of their parties list dont have any loyalty to their constituency.

35
Q

Analyse AMS in relation to power of the party.

A

Has a good balance, where you have the power of the parties with the regional lists and the presence of the constituencies within the FPTP seats.

36
Q

Analyse AMS via Party choice and representation

A

Third parties are much more likely to have greater representation, yet their following can remain fairly small. For example, following 2016 elections in Scotland, the parties with assembly seats were just the three main national parties and the two nationalist parties, UKIP in Wales and The Green Party.
AMS also allows for a split ticket, so if a person is torn they can still vote both ways.

37
Q

Analyse AMS via comprehensibility.

A

AMS is more complicated than FPTP and List PR, creating two confusing categories of representatives which can be confusing on election day. However, it relatively straight forward to count and calculate as it is only one round of voting.

38
Q

What is Single Transferable Vote?

A

-Citizens rank candidates
-A quote is figured out based on how many candidates are being elected in that region (eg; 3 candidates = 33% of vote)
-If anyone is above this winning line, they are elected
-Their unused votes then go to the people’s next choice.
-This repeats until all seats are filled
-If at any point no one meets the quote, that person is eliminated and their votes transferred to the second choice.

39
Q

Analyse STV via proportionality.

A

STV tends to deliver results that accurately reflect overall shares of the vote. Additionally, voters don’t have to worry about vote splitting or tactical voting (essentially worrying about how other people will vote), they just have to think about themselves. For this reason it is favoured by the Electoral Reform Society.

40
Q

Analyse STV via Vote Value

A

Definitely reduces the potential for wasted votes as votes are moved around so much.

41
Q

Analyse STV via participation

A

Northern Ireland traditionally has high rates of turnout, however this cannot be simply put down to STV as there is no clear link.

42
Q

Analyse STV via creating a strong accountable government.

A

STV almost inevitably produces a hung government usually leading to coalition deals and policy compromises.

43
Q

Analyse STV in relation to creating local links.

A

All elected members represent a geographical nature, albeit a larger one than under FPTP. Also, people can approach a range of representatives with their concerns.

44
Q

Analyse STV in relation to Party Choice and representation.

A

There is greater incentive to vote for independent or minor parties as votes aren’t wasted. In NI, there is a significant number of independent representatives (19/160 after its 2020 general election).

45
Q

Analyse STV in relation to comprehensibility and transparency.

A

It is very complicated and the final allocation of seats can take some time, such as in ROI where it took 2 full days before final results were declared.

46
Q

What is AV?

A

Alternate Vote system.
Voters rank candidates.
If a candidate has more than 50% of the 1st votes, it wins
If not, the worst candidate is dropped and it goes to 2nd place votes.
This continues until one candidate has more than 50% of the votes or there is only one candidate left.

47
Q

How is AV different to STV?

A

Retains single member constituencies.

48
Q

Analyse AV via proportionality.

A

It is not a proportional system.
A study of the 2017 election showed that using AV would’ve produced even more disproportionate results than under FPTP
Does secure that each constituencies representative has a majority of support.

49
Q

Analyse AV vote value

A

AV fares relatively well.
There is no disincentive to vote for a minor party as votes are redistributed.
Removes temptation for tactical voting.

50
Q

Analyse AV via participation.

A

Speculative as AV has never been used as an electoral system.

51
Q

Analyse AV via creating a strong and accountable government

A

Most likely to produce a single party government.

52
Q

Analyse AV via Local links

A

As with FPTP, single member constituencies mean this scores highly.

53
Q

Analyse AV through power of the party

A

Similar to FPTP, candidates would be chosen by part members in their constituencies.

54
Q

Analyse AV via party choice and representation

A

Likely to favour candidates with broad appeal.
Candidates with extreme or polarising views who lack support of at least 50% of voters are unlikely to get elected.

55
Q

Analyse AV via comprehensibility.

A

Relatively easy to understand, with one MP per constituency.

56
Q

How does List PR work?

A

-Larger constituencies elect multiple MPs
-Parties have a list of candidates for that area
-People vote for a party and then the number of seats each party gets is decided
-Seats are then filled starting with the 1st rank and going down.

57
Q

Analyse List Pr against proportionality

A

Scores very highly
Number of seats won closely reflects vote share.

58
Q

Analyse list PR against vote value

A

There is much less chance of wasted votes
Wider range of parties can be represented
Larger constituencies does mean that smallest parties who might receive a high national vote % won’t get elected.

59
Q

Analyse List PR against participation

A

It should boost participation as fewer votes are wasted however in the European elections there was really low turnout eg: 2019 36.9%.
This just says bad things about the EU though.

60
Q

Analyse List PR against creating a strong and accountable government

A

It inevitably produces a non-majority government.
Makes it less straightforward to punish individual parties that have been in government.
Can give dispraortionate power to smaller parties who can act as king makers.
It can be argued that coalition governments are preferable to single-party rule.

61
Q

Analyse List PR in relation to local links

A

Weak
Representatives serve hundreds of thousands of constituents
Removes the idea of an MP serving all of a constiuency - people would go to their MPs from their party

62
Q

Analyse List PR against power of the party

A

Central parties have lots of power in deciding the rank of their members
Voters lose control over their candidates.
Parties can essentially guarantee the election for some members.

63
Q

Analyse List PR against party choice and representation

A

The system tends to ensure that a wider range of candidates get elected
Smaller parties used to traditionally have more MEPs than MPs.

64
Q

Analyse List PR against comprehensibility

A

THe system is less straightforward, especially when understanding the D’Hont method, however the end result is arguably more important and fairer.

British Politics (11 decks)

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