First-Past-The-Post Electoral System Flashcards
What is FPTP used for ?
- general elections in the UK
How does FPTP operate?
- MPs elected in single-member constituencies where each constituency in the UK elects one representative to the HOC
- Electors cast a single vote by writing a cross on the ballot paper beside the name of the favoured candidate
- A candidate requires a plurality of votes to win (one more vote than the second candidate)
- No requirement to obtain a majority
Constituencies
- determined by independent boundary commissions
- review size of constituency every 8-12 years
- urban constituencies have fewer electors than suburban and rural
2016- conservative government confirmed plan to reduce the number of MPS from 650 to 600 and reduce disparities in constituency size so all constituencies will have electorates that deviate by no more than 5% points from the UK average of 74,769
Safe Seats
- a constituency in which the incumbent party has a large majority and is usually retained by the same political party at election after election
- safest seat in 2017 was Liverpool, Walton, where Labour won 86% of the vote
Marginal Seats
- a constituency where the incumbent party has a small majority and which may be won by a different party in the next election
- parties focus resources here
- turnout tends to be higher as votes more likely to make a difference
- most marginal seat in 2017 was North East Fife where SNP won with 2 votes
- number of marginal seats in long term decline
2015- 87 seats held by either Labour or Conservatives where the gap was under 10% compared to 121 in 2010
2017 General Election
- Conservatives and Labour polled a combined 82%
- first general election since 1951 where both main partied gained votes
- more MPs secured a majority in their constituency
- large number of marginal seats with majorities of less than 100 votes
- FPTP did no deliver clear majority
- share of seats won by Conservatives was higher than their share of the vote but closing gap of them and Labour denied Conservatives of a ‘winners bonus’
Features of FPTP Elections?
- a two party system
- a winners bonus
- bias to a majority
- discrimination against smaller parties
- single party government
Two-Party System
- 2 major parties compete for office
- favours major parties that have strong nationwide support
- The Social Democratic Party (SDP) formed by disaffected Labour MPs in 1981 and fought the 1983 election in an alliance with the Liberals winning 25% of the vote but 23 seats
- UK begun to resemble multi party system
2010- Conservatives and Labour together recieved 65% of the vote (postwar low) where support for other parties reached record 25%
2017- reversed trend as two main parties won combined vote of 82%
1995 General Election
- competition between Conservatives and Labour
- both scored more than 46% of the vote
- 2% swing from Labour to Conservatives saw Conservatives gain 23 seats giving them a parliamentary majority of 60 seats
- voters rewarded the party in office for presiding over a healthy economy
- Labours credibility damaged by internal divisions
Winners Bonus
-the share of seats that the first placed party wins in excess of its share of vote
- tends to exaggerate the performance of most popular party giving it more seats than is proportional to number of votes received thus boosting majority
1983- Conservative vote- 42.2 Conservative Seats- 36.1
Labour Vote- 27.6 Labour Seats- 32.2
1997- Conservative Vote- 30.7 Conservative Seats- 25
Labour Vote- 43.4 Labour Seats- 63.4
Bias to One Major Party
- biased towards one of the two major parties
Tactical Voting- Labour benefitted from anti-Conservative tactical voting between 1997 and 2005
Differences in Constituency Size- the electorate in constituencies won by Labour in 2015 was 3,850 lower than in those won by Conservatives due to population movement from urban to rural
Differential Turnout- turnout lower in Labour held seats: 62% in 2015 compared to 69% seats won by Conservatives
Labour retained its advantages in constituency size in 2015 and 2017 but Conservative vote more effectively distributed
- Conservatives benefited most from the collapse in support for Liberal Democrats 2015 whereas Labour lost 40 seats to SNP
- Conservatives preformed best in marginal seats 2015 with increase of 4.5% support compared to 1.4% increase nationally
Discrimination Against Smaller Parties
- discriminates against third parties and smaller parties whose support is not concentrated in particular reasons
- Smaller parties disadvantaged by:
Mechanics- FPPT makes it more difficult for smaller parties to win seats as no reward for coming second
Psychology- smaller parties have a credibility problem as voters believe there vote is wasted
2015- despite UKIPs share of the vote only Douglas Carswell in Clacton emerged victorious- UKIP came second in 120 constituencies but only 10% of the vote of the winning party in 2
2015- SNP showed how a party with strong regional support can prosper winning 50% of the vote and 95% of the seats in Scotland
Single-Party Government
- tends to produce single party majority governments
- coalition and minority governments relatively rare
- only 1974, 2010 and 2017 did not produce majority of seats
- 2010 Conservative-Lib Dems coalition first since WW2
- 2015 saw brief return to single party government but majority of 12 by Conservatives was small
- Majority govs less common at the start of 20th century
2010 General Election
- first election since 1974 to produce a hung parliament where no party had an absolute majority of seats
- Conservatives largest party but fell 19 seats short of majority
- achieved net gain of 97 seats and 36% of the vote but was well short of that won by Thatcher and Major 1979-1992
- Labour fell below 30% of the vote but benefited from disparities in constituency size and turnout
2015 General Election
- showed can still deliver single party government
- party that won most votes could form majority government and deliver manifesto and held accountable by voters
- some may of switched to Conservatives to avoid hung parliament
- Conservatives could not convincingly claim democratic legitimacy as the vote share was up by less than 1%
2010-2015 coalition had been stable but Conservative government with a parliamentary majority of 12 may not be
