Proportional Representation

Question 1

What is meant by proportional representation?

Answer 1

• is not a voting system
• it is an “umbrella term” for a number of different voting systems
• definition: proportion of votes = proportion of seats

Question 2

Describe the party list (type of PR)

Answer 2

• is the most proportional system of PR
• there are different types of Party List system
• “National Party List” is the purest form of PR

Question 3

How does the National Party List work?

Answer 3

• the % of votes that a party obtains becomes the number of MPs in Parliament
• i.e. an 100 seat Parliament with 40% of the votes gets 40 MPs -> the parties produce a list of names; so in an 100 seat Parliament, the Labour Party produce a list of 100 names ranked from 1-100 before election day; if they win 40%, the top 40 names become MPs
• e.g. if Lib Dems win 15%, the top 15 names on their list become MPs

Question 4

What are the key aspects of the AMS?

Answer 4

• hybrid/mixed voting system
• combination of FPTP with the party list system (a combination of a simple plurality & a PR system)
• the electorate make two choices when they vote: one for the candidate in their constituency & the other from the party list

Question 5

What is the Additional Member System (AMS)?

Answer 5

• it produces two types of representatives - one local & one based on the party list system
• the party-list element is used to ‘top up’ the constituency vote
• it is used in a ’corrective’ manner to achieve a more proportional vote
• its aim is to correct some of the problems created by FPTP
• used in Wales & Scotland for Senedd & Scottish Parliament elections

Question 6

Describe arguments for AMS

Answer 6

1. it is more proportional than FPTP so it’s fairer & democratic
2. split-ticket voting - encourages more parties to run & helps with participation
3. broad popularity i.e. a party needs to be popular all over the country, not just in certain areas
4. leads to greater representation
5. it retains the MP-constituency link
6. it is good for choice as smaller parties can get elected on the party list
7. as is shown by Scotland, coalition government is not inevitable & coalition government is not automatically weak or unstable
8. the partial use of party list means there are much fewer wasted votes
9. it works well where it is used: Scotland, Wales, it is used in Germany - it has not lead to weak or unstable government*
10. In Germany they use 5% threshold to prevent extremists

• recently it has destabilised governments in Scotland & Wales, however the general consensus is still valid

Question 7

Describe arguments against AMS

Answer 7

1. the party list - if it is closed party list then the party list then the party leaders will choose the list - & its order - giving party leaders too much power
2. two ranks of MPs - might one claim more legitimacy than the other
3. it would encourage extremists - in 2008 the BNP won a seat on the GLA in the most multicultural city in the UK: London
4. constituencies would need to be twice the size and would thus need re-drawing
5. coalition government is likely & might be weak or unstable
6. some might find voting complicated as there are two votes

Question 8

Describe the trend of proportion in the 2021 Scottish election (include more)

Answer 8

• SNP won the most seats (64 of 129) with 44.2% of the vote, however they failed to win an overall majority (so minority gov); the total number of SNP MSPs elected was one more than 2016
• the Conservatives gained the second largest share of the vote (22.8%), winning 31 seats, which also was the same number as in 2016
• Labour took 19.8% of the vote, which was lower than in 2016 (20.8%) & won 22 seats, 2 fewer than in 2016
• Lib Dems took 6% of the vote & lost 1 seat, finishing on 4 seats
• the Green Party took 4.7% of the total vote but finished with 8 seats, 2 more than in 2016
• the average turnout was 63.3% for the constituency ballot & 63.5% for the regional ballot

Question 9

Describe the Senedd elections in 2021 (include more)

Answer 9

• Labour held onto victory solidly
• Labour faced challenges from the Tories & Plaid Cymru (minor party, but significant in Wales) to win 30 seats, just one short of the first-ever majority in Wales
• with the AMS system, the results go as follows: Labour won 27 constituencies, getting exactly 30 seats (half of the seats available); the Conservatives won 8 constituencies (16% of the constituencies) but won 16/60 seats (roughly 25%); Plaid Cymru won 5 constituencies (10%) but won 13/60 seats (roughly 20%); Lib Dems gained 0 constituencies but managed to gain one seat in Parliament

Question 10

Describe the 2021 London Assembly elections (include more)

Answer 10

• to preface there are three votes: Mayor of London (FPTP); your constituency London Assembly Member (FPTP) & the London-wide Assembly Members (AMS)
• in regards to the London Assembly, Labour won 11 seats (unchanged), Conservatives won 8 seats (-1), the Greens won 3 seats (unchanged) & Reform won 1 seat (+1)
• the Reform gain is most likely linked to typically Conservative voters switching to a Reform vote, reflecting the Tories decline in popularity recently
• minor parties (Greens, LD & Reform) are proportionally represented here, especially as overall Greens & Reform do not receive a proportional vote share in general election (esp. 2024) (Reform: 5/650 seats w/ 14.3% of the vote share; Greens: 4/650 seats with 6.7% of the vote share)

Question 11

What does STV stand for?

Answer 11

Single Transferable Vote

Question 12

Explain arguments for STV

Answer 12

1. STV highlights a deliberate means to avoid wasted votes which, in real life application has seen to perform this criterion extremely well i.e. there are no wasted votes
2. fair/democratic - see impact (example) on Northern Irish elections
3. guarantees a wide range of representation - not just political representation - but social representation e.g. Catholic & Protestant communities in Northern Ireland; however, could this have an impact on racial/ethnic/gender representation in the Commons?
4. choice - good for smaller parties
5. still maintains the MP-constituency link & may improve it; choice of MPs to go to

Question 13

Explain arguments against STV (finish)

Question 14

What voting systems are significant outside plurality systems & PR?

Answer 14

yes:
- majoritarian systems; not PR but relies on candidates winning majorities in their constituencies not pluralities (as is the case with FPTP)
- two examples of this type of system: SV (which was used in the UK); AV (which is not used, but we had a referendum on it)

Question 15

How does the AV electoral system work?

Answer 15

• voter puts a number by each candidate, with one for their favourite, two for their second favourite & so on
• they can put numbers on as many or as few as they wish
• if more than half the voters have the same favourite candidate, that person becomes the MP
• if nobody gets half, the numbers provide instructions for what happens next
• the counters remove whoever came last & look at the ballot papers with that candidate as their favourite; rather than throwing away these votes, they move each vote to the voter’s second favourite candidate
• this process is repeated until one candidate has half of the votes & becomes the MP

Question 16

What are the advantages of the AV electoral system?

Answer 16

• deals with vote splitting: under FPTP, a candidate the majority dislike can win, if the majority split their votes across multiple candidates
• voters can vote for their favourite candidate without worrying about wasting their vote; this means there is less need for tactical voting than in FPTP
• unlike hosting a run-off vote to decide the inner, the AV uses a single ballot & avoids the need for tactical voting to stop a disliked candidate getting into the final round
• candidates themselves are also incentivised to run less divisive campaigns, as candidates will want to become their opponent’s voters second favourite candidate
• as extremist candidates on the political fringes are likely to be the first to be excluded, the AV tends to work against candidates who are polarising & help those who are broadly liked

Question 17

What are the weaknesses of the AV electoral system?

Answer 17

• it is not a form of PR
• in certain conditions i.e. the 2015 General Election, it would produced a less proportional result than FPTP
• it is important to mention that this voting system is not favoured by the British public, the British public voted not the replace FPTP with AV in 2011 (67.9% to 32.1%; low turnout (42.2%))

Question 18

How does the SV electoral system work? (include more from electoral reform)

Answer 18

• used for electing Mayors & Police and Crime Commissioners in the UK
• part of a broad group of ‘preferential’ voting systems, which include the AV used in Australia & the Contingent Vote used to elect the Sri Lankan president
• there are two columns of boxes alongside the candidates’ name on the ballot paper
• one column of boxes is for voters to mark their favourite candidate with an X & one in which to mark a second favourite with an X
• voters don’t have to mark a second favourite if they do not have one
• voters can put an X in both boxes for one candidate but this is effectively the same as just marking your favourite & no additional benefit comes from this
• with SV, if no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, the top two candidates continue to a run-off & all other candidates are eliminated

Question 19

Describe the impact of electoral systems on governments & the type of government

Answer 19

• proportional systems have led to a greater number of coalition or minority governments being formed where they are used
• however, as Northern Ireland has to have a coalition government as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the data collected from its elections must be viewed this lens
• while Scotland & Wales have experienced coalition governments, they have also achieved majority governments using proportional systems
• given that AMS has created a strong & stable, single-party government, this has fuelled discussions over whether systems like AMS could be used to replace FPTP

i.e.

• Wales & Scotland have experienced coalition have both been able to legislate successfully over their own regions. As a result, both countries have pressed for further power to be devolved to them, as seen in subsequent Scotland & Wales Acts

In terms of this:

• For Wales this meant gaining primary legislative powers & changing from a ‘conferred matters’ model, meaning it could make law only on policy areas it had been given, to a ‘reserved matters’ model. The ‘reserved matters’ model of the government had been used in Scotland & allowed it to make laws on anything not ‘reserved’ for Parliament at Westminister
• For Scotland, this meant pressure for independence & an independence referendum. The outcome of the referendum initially quelled (put an end to) this pressure. However, given the result of the Brexit referendum - in which the UK voted to leave the EU but Scotland as a nation voted to remain - the issue of Scottish independence was reignited

Regarding Northern Ireland:

• Aside from Northern Ireland, the governments that have been created have proven to be stable
• In Northern Ireland, the problems that have occurred have been less as a result of the electoral system & more to do with the historical tensions that exist there

Question 20

Describe the impact of electoral systems on parties & party systems

Answer 20

• the number of parties successfully competing in elections & forming governments has increased as a result of proportional systems
• particularly in Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland, nationalist or unionist parties (SNP, Plaid Cymru, DUP & Sinn Fein) have gained influence & have been able to be part of governments in their respective countries or provinces
• these systems have also allowed notable success for other parties i.e. the Tories have performed poorly in Scotland since the prime ministership of Thatcher; under AMS, they have been able to pick up seats, even becoming the second-largest party in Holyrood due to this proportional system
• AMS has allowed the Conservatives’ widely spread support to be translated into seats at regional level; they do, however, still perform less well at constituency level in Scotland
• in some of the devolved bodies, it could be argued that small parties have been over-represented i.e. in 2007, with the SNP winning 47 seats and Labour winning 46, an SNP agreement with the Green Party, which had just two seats, allowed the SNP to form a minority government
• in this situation, small parties have become ‘king-makers’, similar to the role of the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 UK general election - this means they exercise power far beyond that which their electoral success suggests they should have

Question 21

Describe the impact of electoral systems on voters & voter choice

Answer 21

• the use of differing electoral systems can theoretically help to improve voter turnout by eliminating some of the problems associated with FPTP that may depress turnout, such as wasted votes & safe seats
• however, it can be difficult to demonstrate this as turnout for a regional election does not necessarily represent the likely turnout for a general election
• in many of the devolved bodies, turnout has been lower than in the UK general election; this could be due to the complexity of the systems or to a reduced importance placed on on them given the limited powers of devolved bodies
• extrapolating answers form this data is tricky because these systems have not been used in a nationwide election
• it is clear, however, that voters have had greater choice in all of the newly introduced electoral systems; this includes SV which, while majoritarian (governed by or believing in decision by a majority), allows voters two preferences, meaning they can vote however they wish with their first vote and still use the second one for one of the two major UK parties
• the proportional systems have gone further than this, not only offering greater choice, with AMS having two votes & STV offering ordinal voting, but also reducing wasted votes or the likelihoods of safe seats; they have also improved voter choice in representation
• in multi-member constituencies, voters have a choice of representatives they can lobby (influence) in order to get their voices heard