Electoral Systems Flashcards
What electoral system does the UK currently use for general elections and English local elections?
First past the post (FPTP)
What system used to be used for EU elections in the UK?
Closed party list (List PR or CPL)
What system is used for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments?
Additional member system (AMS)
What system is currently used for the Northern Ireland assembly and Scottish local and council elections?
Single transferrable vote (STV)
What system is currently used to elect select committee chairs?
Alternative vote (AV)
How majoritarian/proportional is each system: FPTP, AV, AMS, STV, List PR
Majoritarian:
FPTP
AV
Hybrid:
AMS
Proportional:
STV
List PR
What are the factors that need to be considered when evaluating electoral systems?
- Proportionality
- Vote value
- Promotion of participation
- Party choice and representation
- Comprehensibility and transparency
Who is in support of electoral reform?
Many are in support of electoral reform, namely a cross-party pressure group formed in 2015 called Make Votes Matter and in 2019, its members included the Liberal Democrats, The Green party, The SNP, the Brexit party and the electoral reform society
What are the key points from if the 2019 election were to use different electoral systems?
- Only FPTP would result in a government with a commons majority
- The liberal democrats would benefit mostly from electoral reform
Explain the First past the pot (FPTP) electoral system + Provide an example of it working.
This system works on a majoritarian principle whereby the candidate with the most votes wins the seat, i.e. only a simple majority (a plurality) is required. Those who are runners up, no matter how close the contest, receive no electoral reward. An example of this system is seen below:
Ribble Valley constituency (2024 GE):
Lab: Maya Ellis: 18,177 (Seat won)
Con: Nigel Evans: 17,321
Explain the party list PR (List PR) electoral system and provide an example of it working.
This system consists of large constituencies, whereby a group of MP’s would be elected to represent the area. The electorate casts votes for a party rather than an individual candidate, and the parties typically rank their candidates in each area, placing the more prominent figures in the party higher up in the rankings, e.g. the leader. The no. seats a party wins is calculated based on the vote share. E.g. if labour won 10% of the vote in an area with 10 seats, then they’d win 1 seat.
For example, the system was used for european elections and in 2019, these were the results for the south east of england:
Brexit: 916,000: 4 seats
Lib dem: 654,000: 3
Green: 343,000: 1
Con: 260,000: 1
Lab: 185,000: 1
Explain the Additional Member System (AMS) and provide an example of it working.
AMS is a hybrid system, combining aspects of both FPTP and List PR. Voters receive two ballots, voting for a candidate and for a party. Initially, MP’s are chosen and elected in constituencies using the FPTP voting system, then regional MP’s that represent larger areas including multiple constituencies are chosen proportional to the 2nd vote (the party vote) in order to top up and make the overall number of MP’s more proportional to the votes.
Example: The Lothian Region:
1st stage:
SNP: 6
Con: 1
Lib Dem: 1
Lab: 1
Party Votes:
SNP: 38%
Con: 24%
Lib Dem: 6%
Lab: 21%
Greens: 11%
Therefore, due to this, the 7 regional MSP’s were allocated this way in accordance to the vote share:
SNP 0 (6)
Con 3 (4)
Lab 0 (1)
Lib Dem 2 (3)
Greens 2 (2)
So when adding constituency and regional together, the result is far more proportional.
Explain the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) electoral system and provide an example of it working.
Initially, voters rank their candidates in order of preference and a quota is calculated (using no. candidates/votes), with the result being how many votes a candidate needs to receive in order to win a seat. Any candidate that receives more votes than the quota is immediately elected, with the surplus of votes (any more than the quota) being transferred in proportion to the 2nd preferences of the voters. If more candidates than seats remain, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are also transferred. This process is continued until all seats are filled.
An example of this in in Northern Ireland, whereby Sinn Fein won 27 seats in the 2022 election.
Explain the Alternative Vote (AV) electoral system and an example of it working.
Alternative vote (AV) is an elecotral system whereby voters rank their candidates based on preference by number. Then, if a candidate gets more than half the votes they are elected. However, if nobody gets more than half of the vote, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and their 2nd preference votes are redistributed and this process is continued until a candidate gets more than half of the votes.
Name 3 advantages of FPTP
- Produces clear and decisive results, forming a strong government. e.g. in 2019 FPTP gave con 365 seats (56%) from 44% of the vote, allowed the efficient passing of a brexit deal.
- Strong local links, every constituency is provided with its own MP, forming a strong MP-constituency link.
- Simple and easy to understand
What are 3 disadvantages of FPTP
- Unproportional, Blairs labour won 63% of the seats on a 43% vote share in 1997 and in 2015, UKIP won 1 seat from 3.9m votes.
- Vote value, those in safe seats, particularly when voting for smaller parties feel as if their vote does not count. e.g. brexit party won 644,000 votes but got no seats in the 2019 GE
- Harms participation, disincentivises smaller parties’ voters from voting as their vote is wasted
Name 3 advantages of list PR
- Proportionality, the number of seats won from the vote share would be very fair. e.g. in 2019 if list PR was used, the Brexit party would have won 40% of the seats from 39% of the vote share
- Much lower chance of votes being wasted
- In theory should increase participation as votes are not wasted, however in EU elections, turnout was historically low compared to general elections. e.g. 2019 = 37% turnout
Name 3 disadvantages of list PR
- Coalition governments would be inevitable, they would become the norm and not the exception.
- MPs serve hundreds of thousands of constituents, creates a weak constituency-MP relationship.
- Difficult to understand and comprehend
Name 3 advantages of AMS
- Proportional result, as shown from the Lothians electoral result
- Creates a close local link not present with list pr but would create a two tiered system of elected reps with regional reps lacking a direct mandate
- allows smaller parties representations. e.g. see lothians results
Name 3 disadvantages of AMS
- Almost inevitably produces a minority government result in coalitions. The SNP pre 2024 were the dominant force in scottish politics, and only once recently formed a majority government (2011)
- Far more complicated than FPTP, requires 2 ballot papers.
Name 3 advantages of STV
- Proportionality, it accurately reflects the overall vote share
- reduces the potential for votes to be wasted. Voters voting for smaller parties can still be effective as their 2nd vote may be redistributed
- Participation, NI turnout in the 2019 EU elections was 45%, higher than the rest of the UK, however NI has traditionally higher turnouts anyway.
Name 2 disadvantages of STV
- Coalition governments would become the norm and not the exception. However, supporters argue its a small price to pay for fairer votes.
- Difficult to understand and calculating the final allocation of results would take a lot of time
Name 3 advantages of AV
- Removes the temptation for tactical voting, no disincentive against voting for a smaller party as votes will be redistributed
- Absence of wasted votes should in theory increase participation but due to it not being used for public elections, this is merely theoretical
- Likely to result in a single party government. It is likely, although not inevitable, that many 2nd preference votes go to a main party.
Name a disadvantage of AV
- Not proportional, a study performed on the 2017 GE predicted that using AV would result in a less proportional result than FPTP.
