Electoral Systems - Additional Member System Flashcards
HYBRID SYSTEM - principles
combination of plurality (FPTP) or majority system AND proportional system (AMS) and
Where is AMS used?
Used in the Scottish Parliament elections and the Welsh Parliament elections AND the London Assembly.
How does it work?
two ballots - constituency, and regional.
- There are two ballots - the first uses FPTP to elect a constituency MSP (for Scotland).
- The second ballot is used to elect a regional MSP for one of the 8 regions of Scotland. This vote is for the party. There are 7 elected for each of the 8 regions - 56 additional MSPs elected.
- The parties allocate a number of additional members to make the overall result more proportional - these MSPs are elected from party lists (MSPs)
Positives - Proportionality
2021 Scottish Parliament case study of constituency/regional vote.
Second stage of the AMS corrects any of the issues of FPTP because the more seats a party gains in the first round, the more difficult it is to gain votes in the regional seats as the votes will be divided by a higher number - reduces wasted votes and ensures more parties have a chance of representation.
SNP CONSTITUENCY vote: 48%
SNP REGIONAL vote: 40%
Conservatives CONSTITUENCY vote: 22%
Conservatives REGIONAL vote: 24%
Positives - Split-ticket voting
voters have more choice with two votes to cast and they can choose to exercise their votes for different parties which encourages more parties to run. Even if they are unsuccessful constituency-wise, this encourages them to run regionally.
Positives - government with broad popularity
Parties must have broad popularity across the entire country and not just concentrated.
Positives - greater representation
With all areas being represented by a constituency and regional representatives, there is a greater chance for voter’s ideologies to represent their true feelings which would increase turnout.
Negatives - complicated process/spoiled ballots
the process of voting is simple but the calculation of seats is not and this may put off voters from turning up.
2019 elections using FPTP, only 0.37% of the votes were invalid whereas in the 2007 Scottish Parliament Elections (using AMS) 3.5% of the ballots (140,000) were unusable.
Negatives - unlikely single-party government
coalitions are more likely which makes the government weaker and find it more difficult to pass on policies they campaigned for.
Negatives - first round = constituency vote of AMS is conducted using FPTP.
This carries the same exact disadvantages of FPTP.
Negatives - two types of representation
AMS creates two tiers of representation –> the constituency and the regional MSP - this causes confusion for the voters and blurs the accountability because it is not a single tier.
Negatives - party control
Party control over the regional vote - the party controls the list of candidates, and so voters only have the choice to support the list or not which gives an excess of influence to the party leadership.
Scotland Parliament Elections 2021 May
Results - SNP+Green deal
MAJ needed - 65/129
The SNP won a historic fourth consecutive win.
They won 64 seats, one more than in 2016. They are one seat short of a majority.
Aug 2021 - Green Party in Scotland agreed to join a ‘coalition’ govt with the SNP in a power-sharing deal. The deal was agreed in principles earlier this month and needed approval from members at the party conference - the Greens entered government for the first time ever. They claimed 88% of the party members at the conference voted to back the deal.
The Conservatives came second with 31 seats, and Lab with 22 (doing worse by losing 2 seats since 2016)
Welsh Parliament Elections 2021 May
Results
Labour remains in power! For the next five years!
This is Labour’s best ever Senedd election result!
LAB won 30/60 seats. One more than 2016.
CONS won 16/60 seats.
Plaid Cymru won 13
What was the turnout for the 2021 Holyrood election?
using AMS
63%, which was 10% above the average for previous Holyrood polls.
