electoral systems final exam Flashcards
what are the purposes of elections
- accountabillity
- desiding representation and leadership
1. party leaderhip election too - legitimisng power
1. by returing popular sov - development of new policy and clarification of plicy
1. manifesto + agregation
list the differnt elctoral systems and where they are / were used and what type of a system they are
- FPTP - general - plurallity
- AMS - Scotish and welsh - proportional
- AV - European parliament - proportional
- STV - NI assembly - proportional
- SV - Major of london London - majoriterian
how does FPTP work
- there are a numbre of single candidate consituencies where people (often affiliated with parties), will run for office
- each consituency works on a plurallity, winner takes all based system
- the party at the end with the majority of seats/wins, there leader is then asked to form a government and they become the prime minister
evaluate the effectiveness of FPTP as an electoral system essay plan
para 1- no
* falsue majority
1. Alsdair McDonnel belfast south 2015 won with only 24,5% of the vote the lowest ever
* this is due to the plurallity, winner thakes all way the consituent by constituent seats are desided. This an issue as there it genrally means taht there is a lack of represenation in the commons. The majority of the electorates votes are wasted as only the candiate with the most votes progresses. it alsomeans on a larger level gov may lack a majority
1. con gov 2015 51% of the vote so weild the sword of parleimtry sov whilest only having 37% of the popular vote
* strong MP constituent links
* however, FPTP being this way does provide clear MP constituent links as each consituency has one MP who people know to go to if they have issues to raise. their contact detail are on the governemtn websight and they regularly appear at community events. with a system like STV there are multiple regeinal represenatives so there might be confusion in who one needs to contact to represent them. Therefore, FPTP allows MP to more dirrectly represent their views.
1. emma hardy- hull west, reponded to the pligt of a homless shelter during covid, securing them a supply of weekly covid tests and equtment to support social distancing and propper hygein
2. However, Some systems like AMS provide the opertunity for local and regeinal candidates allowing for more proportinal prepresenation and MP constituent links to be maintained.
Para 2 - no
Lack of voter choise
1. because of the winners bonnus and the 2 party system that emerges consequentually there is also a lack of voter choise as peopel are forced to tacktically vote for one of the two major parties if tehy want their vote to have a chance counting. issue as poor rep resentation
2. however in 2017 18% of peopel said they didn’t proppoerly feel represented by the party tehy voted for
* strong single party gov
* can be vital when the country faces issues that need to be acted on quickly and dessisivly.
2. e.g. legislating around covid and borris 80 majority help repond to covis
2. However in recent years FPTP has failed to provide stong gov. e.g 2010 coallion 2015 majoirty 12 and 2017 minority governemnt of 9 and we have seen the rise of minority parties e.g 62 LD 2005 and 57 2010 allowing colaalison, SNP 56/59 scottish seats 2015
Para 3 - no
vote inequallity
* the plurallity nature of FPTP measn that safe and swing seats will emerge reginally.
2. for exampel liverpool worton is a labour safe sea that will always go red as 77% of the electorate voted in 2019 labour and cottswold conservtive won 58% of teh vote in 2019, Vs say teh city of bath witch is a LD conservatiev swing seat.
* this means peopel who vote in swing seats there vote holds morw weight than thoese who vote in safe seats. Fundime tally this is arguablly undemoractic and also it demotivates peopel in safe seats to turn out, underming the over all democratic legitmacy of thw process.
* centralist policy
* as the major parties are aware tehy need to appeal to broad swades of the electorate tehy will adopt centralist policies. It is argued that the winning party is th one who most closly occupies the centre groud.
2. for example, tony blairs new labour or borri’s one nation conservatism.
4. however, since the intrdcution of whole party primaries in party leadership elections e.g. in labour in 2015 voting in the very left wing jerramy corbin this has become less of the case and lizz truss whom was very thatcherite.
para 4 - no
* simple to understand
1. inspires higher tuen out as the elctorate has greter faith in the workings of the sysem which helps legitimise the results + as there is less confusion e.g. about districbundaries and
issues with FPTP can also be argued to reduce tun out
1. e.g not above 70% since turn of the centaury, but there also seems to be a lack of appetite to change as AV ref 68%
* safe seats may cause peopel to view election as a done deal
1. howerver: democrtaic overload and antipathy towards the gov
How does AMS work ?
- there legislagture is spit into local/constituency and regeinal candidates
- there is aslip ballot, One side is for a regienal candidate and the other for local.
- the local elction works same as FPTP with singular candidate winner take all purallity elctions
- the regeinal ballots are for multi member regeins . You simply vote for a party and then candidate are selcted off of a list system of each to fill the seats. To make this more proportional, the total numbre of votes a party got in the reginal is divided by the total numbre of seats +. seats are then given to the party with the most votes and this continues untill evry seat is filled. works via a party list system
- this countres the winners bonnus of FPTP
how to spell region
region
evaluate AMS essay plan
para 1 - yes
* more proportional result
* the regeins are member and mostly multi party and they make up for the winners bonnus that’s expirences in the local election that works on the same basis as fptp. They are worked out by dividing the total vote of each party by the numbre of seats tehy won locally + 1.
2. for example, in the scottish parliament the greens got 0 consituency seats but 8 regeinal seats and 5% of the total combined vote, this is very close to the 6 seats taht tehy would have won if they were to get exactly 5% of the seats.
3. 2021 SNP got 45% of the total vote vs 50% of the seats
* this is significant beuse a more proportional result means that the makup of parliament is more democratically representative.
* however there are still issues with both the reginal and constituency votes individually
* issues with the first round are still the same as its winner takes all. this results in the same problem by which the consituency MP can end up only representing a small plurallity of the electorate. This is significnat as constituent votes are for a specific candidate who will have a somwhat unique stace on issues compared to the reginal vote which is just a party list system.
2. this was significant in banshire and butchen coast constituency in scotland where karen Adam and Mark Findlater split the vast majority of the vote with only 170 vote differnce between them, yet all marks voted were discounted as karen marginally won.
* furtherore the reginal list alienates peopel from their MP and they may not even know who is representing them. This may also crete tention between reps.
para 2- no
* lack of a strong single party gov
* due to more preportinal result
2. Welsh parliament has never had a majority governemnt
3. significant as it makes dession making and action alot harder as there is no majority to easilly pass things though
* not always frue + gov by consensus and gov wit broard pop
* furthermore, if a governemnt is elcted they will be broadly popular with most of teh electorate witch is good for representaiona nd tehir mandate to act / legit of gov
* Furtehrmore, if an outright majority of a singular party isnt recahed then there will have to be a coallisiona or gov by consensu which can actully be better for democracy. it by nature envoles more vies being considered, dialecricla dissusion and avoids tyrany of teh majority, tehrefor eteh eletorate would likly be more in favour of dession recahed.
1. 2016 SNP won 44% of the vote and 49 % of the seats vs in 2015 in westmister tories won 37% of the vote and 59% of the seats
2. 2021 there is a coallison between the green sand SNP which is aiding scotlands green enitutive, menawhile a 2022 department of national stats poll found that 78% of teh electorate listed climate change as one of tehri top conserns
para 3 - yes
* incresed voter choise (= greter rep)
1. more parties can run in regeinal and stand a chnace of winning besue of the result being made more preportional
2. for instance there are 34 registered parties in scotland thta regualrly put up candidates for elections
* more lilly a voter will find a candidate to reprent them with a simillar ideological outlook
* incresed party controle
* party controle the list, giving party exessive influence
* more confusing
* has potenical to delegitamise the process as electorate lose trust in the system, they may not understand the process and refrain from voting as they might feel their vote is beeing manipulated .
* there is also confusion around accountbaillity with the reginal candidates and consituency candiates so peopel may not be motivated to turn out
2. turn out has never been above 60% in any of the regions
* more likly beuse there is a general democratic defcite in the uk ( maybe due to democratic overload)
what are the two AMS votes on the split ballot
- constituency
- regional
give an exaple of the consituency vote still being problematic in AMS
- banshire and butchen coast constituency in scotland where karen Adam and Mark Findlater split the vast majority of the vote with only 170 vote differnce between them, yet all marks voted were discounted as karen marginally won.
where uses AMS
- london assembly
- scottish parliemnt
- welsh parliament
how does STV work
- there is a regeinal vote of multiple candidates some of the same party
- rate their choises of candiates 1,2,3 etc
- a dop quata is desided to ensure a candidate needs to get if they want a seat
- this is = to total votes in the regein/ numbre of seats +1) +1
- if someone raches it outright they get a seat
- any vote sover this drop quta are redistributed and the second choise is counted
- if they still arnt filled then the bottom candiate is disquallifed and the votes redistibuted, this contunues untill all the seats are filled
how many regions does NI have ? and hwo many reps in each
18
6
what are the pros and cons of STV
pros
* gov by consensus
1. NI assembly at stormont has been suspende dfor 9 years in total since it’s cretion in 1998
* more proportional/greater rep
* more voter choise
1. especially as you know the MP’s you are voting for
* more proportional result
cons
* lack of MP constituent links
* confusing
* almost impossible to achive a majority gove = week government
1. not always a bad thing - only used in NI and this is what the system was intended for sinn fein and DUP alignce = stop troubles
* lack of strong single party gov
give example of NI assembly results 2017
- DUP - 23% - 28 seats
- Sinn Fein 23% - 27 seats
how does SV work
- people get 2 votes
- if a candidate doesnt reach a majorit outright then all but the top two are leiminated
- the secondry votes are redistributed and this desides the winner.
give possitve and negyive to SV
pros
* strong single party gov
* increse voter choise
1. can vote for who they want and use their second to make sure the first isnt waisted
2. however in london in 2016 almost 1/5 didnt even bother putting a second choise
* majority result + gov with alot of pop
1. winner strong mandate to govern and broad pop
2. sadjid Khan had 44% of first votes and 66% in second round in 2016
* eliminates extreemist parties
* simple
1. inspire turn out
2. however- 2.5 mill 2016 - 45% of pop
cons
* wasted votes
1. if some didnt vote for either of the top candidates
2. however in 2016 79% did in only the firt round so probs small %
* flase majority
1. as second prefurences of not top two candidates arn’t counted
2. maybe teh first two candidates were highly divisine and the third was actually had the most secondry votes
* 2 part dominace ( even 1 for the short term)
1. alsot of peoples prefurences arnt heard if they dont vote for one of the top candidates in either of thir choises
what were the results of the winner of the SV london major electrions in 2016 + why is this rellivat
- sadjid Khan had 44% of first votes and 66% in second round
- talking about wide spred support with SV
