Electoral Systems - AMS & SV

Question 1

Additional member system (AMS)

Answer 1

• welsh assemblies & Scottish parliament
• two votes; one for constituency representative using FPTP as a second vote for a ‘party list’ in order to elect an ‘additional’ representative
• party list uses multi-member regional constituencies and a party’s list of candidates is published before the election

Question 2

AMS - Scottish parliament

Answer 2

• in Scottish parliament elections 73 members are elected by FPTP and whilst 566seats are filled by using list members
• the 56 additional members re allocated to 8 regional seats, and there are 7 additional members per region
• the number of additional members each arty gets depends on the proportion of votes they review in an election

Question 3

AMS - advantage; link & proportion

Answer 3

• ensures a strong link between the MP elected by the FPTP vote nod their constituents who directly vote for them
• AMS has a proportional element to t through proportionally assigning seats to parties from the lists based on the number of votes for each party

Question 4

AMS - advantage; choice

Answer 4

• more choice as they can use one vote for an MP they support & another to support a party of their choosing

Question 5

AMS - disadvantages

Answer 5

• smaller parties less well represented as the party list system can advantage the largest parties
• less legitimacy for party candidate - aren’t directly elected with a personal mandate
• lacks democratic transparency as they party decides who is on the party list & ranks the order of candidates

Question 6

Supplementary vote (SV)

Answer 6

• used for London Mayoral elections & t elect police and crime commissioners in England and wales
• voter has a first an second preference vote with a candidate elected for winning more than 50% of first reference votes
• if none win over 50% all are eliminated except top two who have votes second preference votes

Question 7

SV - advantages

Answer 7

• simples - only two preferences
• stops candidates winning from only have a small level of support + encourages positive campaigning as candidates also need 2nd preferences voting

Question 8

SV - disadvantages

Answer 8

• wasted votes - many votes excused from final count if top two eliminated (2012 London mayor election 15% of votes wasted in first round)
• not proportional to wishes of a region - only one candidate elected rather that multiple proportionally reflecting wishes of voters
• doesn’t require absolute majority - just need most votes in 2nd round