Evaluate the view that PR would improve the General Election to the House of Commons Flashcards
What current voting system is employed?
First past the post system
How does FPTP work
In this system the candidate with the highest number of votes in a constituency is declared the winner.
How does Proportional Representation work?
The voting system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them
How would PR improve the election to the House of Commons?
-More politically representative
-Increase the amount of collaborative governments
-Increase participation amongst the population
Where has PR been used effectively?
More recently proportional representation has been used to create governments in Scotland, especially strong governments with the SNP having a considerably large majority.
How would PR produce a more accurate level of results?
Proportional representation results in a more accurate reflection of results by containing more parties; this would increase the amount of collaborative governments and thus would lead to a more democratic government, which reflects a more modern Britain.
How will PR lead to a negative affect on representation?
Leads to an increase of radical and extreme views
Example of an increase of radical and extreme views?
This can be seen with UKIP, a right wing anti-Europe and immigration party, getting 12.5% of the vote in the 2015 general election.
How did FPTP limit UKIP in 2015?
Due to FPTP system being in place they only won 1 seat this shows a lack of representation as well.
Advantages of FPTP to do with representation.
FPTP tends to have a high turnout rate compared to a PR system along with having a constituency link.
How does FPTP create a weak government?
Governments become complacent in a FPTP system as they don’t listen to the people who elected them, due to their majority government they can easily pass laws without being bothered about the people.
Example of Governments becoming weak under FPTP?
In the last 10 years no strong governments have been created via a FPTP system in the UK, even in the past we have had 3 different prime ministers, due to our voting system we create weak governments as we only get a binary 2 party system.
Weakness of the US and their PR system?
The US use a PR system and usually every president struggles to pass laws after the midterm election they then lose the election as they haven’t done enough to gain people’s vote.
Weakness of PR to do with transition?
PR produces a slow transition of power- Germany took 6 weeks to complete their transition in 2021.
On average what does a FPTP system create?
A FPTP system does on average create a strong and stable government historically as they have to gain a majority to win.
