Multi party system

Question 1

what is a multi party system?

Answer 1

• where many parties compete for power and the government consists of a series of coalitions formed by different combinations of parties

Question 2

what led to people believing that the UK had a multiparty system

Answer 2

• the rise of LB and a range of other smaller parties in the earlier first part of the 21st century led some people to suggest that the UK was morphing into a multi arty system

Question 3

what does the term two party system refer to?

Answer 3

• where two fairly equally matched parties compete for power at elections and others have little realistic chance of breaking their duopoly

Question 4

introduction for essay :does the UK have a multi party system?

Answer 4

• define a multi party system

Question 5

Paragraph one:

Answer 5

coalitions and hung parliaments are becoming way to common
- 1974 two party system came under strain in the Feb general election. Conservatives lost a considerable amount of shares to a third party which in turn led to a hung parliament.
- this meant that third party seats such as lib dems gained 8 seats, SNP’s gained 6 seats and the Plaid Cymru gain one seat.

Counterevidence: labour and conservative still form government opposition and have always formed government opposition i.e labour and the conservatives took up 83% of votes at the 2017 general election

Evaluations: more coalitions and hung parliaments do not show a move to the two party system they represents a decline in the party’s majority

Question 6

Paragraph two:

Answer 6

P: It is a multi party sysem electoral systems have impacted the two main parties in other elections
in the 2014 European parliament election, UKIP won winning 24 of the 73 available seats
the use of the closed party list ensured an additional 10 seats went to parties other than the conservative and labour
The additional member system combines the FPTP with the closed party list which in turn enables third parties to gain more seats as it is more proportionally represented
This means that the voting system does not enable other parties to be represented which is why it is assumed that there is a two party system

Question 7

Paragraph three:

Answer 7

Q
Give an example of how the UK is a two party system

A
General elections from 1945 to 1974 gave strong evidence of a two party system
at the 1951 general election the labour and conservative combined vote share was 96.8%
all but 9 MP’s were labour or conservative
This was due to class alignment which was prevailed historically