Electoral Systems Flashcards
Where is Closed Regional list used?
European parliamentary elections
Where is First past the post used?
General elections
Local council elections
(Police and Crime Commissioner elections) Conservatives are trying to change this so it uses FPTP
Where is Additional member system?
Welsh assemblies
Scottish parliament
Greater London assembly
Where is the Alternative vote used?
Local Labour elections
Where is the supplementary vote used?
Police and crime commissioner elections
Where is the single transferable vote used?
Northern Ireland assemblies
What type of electoral system does STV use?
Proportional representation
What type of system does Supplementary vote use?
Majoritarian
What type of electoral system does AV use?
Majoritarian
What type of system does the Additional member system use?
Hybrid systems; FPTP and CPRL with elements of simple plurality and proportionality
What type of system does FPTP use?
Simple Majority
What are the 6 criteria questions to judge electoral systems?
Do the produce a fair result?
Is there a choice of candidate in each constituency?
How strong is the link between candidate and constituency?
Does the electoral system tend to produce strong and stable government?
Is the system easy to understand?
Do all of the votes have equal value?
What are the (4) strengths of First Past the Post?
Speedy and Simple, results are next morning
Produces a strong and stable government
Exclusion of extremists
A strong link between MPs their constituency
What are the (6) weaknesses of FPTP
The votes do not have equal value
There isn’t a choice of candidate
Limited voter choice, (safe seat votes don’t count)
Lack of proportionality, UKIP got 3.8m votes and 1 seat
MPs can be elected on less that 50% of the vote
Doesn’t always produce strong stable government (1974, 2010, 2017)
What are the (2) strengths of Closed Party Regional list?
Representative of all parties
Helps parties that are regionally spread out
What are the (3) weaknesses of Closed Party Regional list?
Produces weak and wobbly coalitions
It has bad / weak MP constituency link
Enables extremist parties to gain seats
What are the (4) strengths of Single transferable vote?
All parties are fairly represented
There is a close correlation between votes and seats
Voter choice is high
In Northern Ireland it has created shared representation of rival communities.
What are the (3) Weakness of Single Transferrable vote?
Doesn’t exclude extremist parties like the BNP
Not quick or easy for the electorate to understand
In a large multi member constituency the MP link is weak
What are the (3) strengths of supplementary votes?
MPs have to be elected on more than 50% of the vote
Would produce strong stable government
Strong MP constituency link
What are the (2) weaknesses of supplementary vote?
The winner doesn’t need an absolute majority
SV is not proportional as one individual is being elected
What are the (3) strengths of AV?
Strong MP constituency link
Produces strong stable government
Easy for electorate to understand
What is the weakness of AV?
Electorate don’t have a say of who the candidate is
What are the (3) strengths of AMS?
The top up component adds an element of proportionality
FPTP maintains strong MP constituency link
It produces a fair result using FPTP
What are the (4) weaknesses of of AMS?
Produce minority governments or coalitions
Smaller parties achieve less representation
It creates two type of member some with constituency power some without
There is no choice of candidate
The votes do not all have equal value
