UK POLITICS - Electoral Systems (Improved) Flashcards
How is FPTP’s proportionality? Give evidence.
Weak due to pluralist, rather than majoritarian, system
- Starmer has 63% of seats and 34% of votes
- Churchill gained a majority despite having less than Labour
How is FPTP’s voter choice? Give evidence.
Poor as only one vote and tactical voting is common
- In 2024 57.8% of votes were either unrepresented or surplus
- In 2024, 20% of votes were tactical (Yougov)
Does FPTP create strong and stable governments? Give evidence and a counterargument.
Very strong due to winners’ bonus, providing large majority and clear mandate - Johnson’s 80 seat majority and ‘Getting brexit done’
- Makes them unaccountable, leading to tension in Commons - Fears of a rebellion over Starmer’s PIP cuts
Does FPTP have strong contituency-voter link? Give evidence and a counterargument.
Strong; one constituency and one rep leading to strong link - Zac Goldsmith resigning over Heathrow; Vicky Foxcroft and sending letters over Thames water shortage
- Many people don’t see them as ‘their’ MP, due to unrepresentativeness, leading to apathy - 75% of people can’t name their local MP
Outline AMS.
Does AMS have strong proportionality? Give a counterargument.
Very proportional, regional seats bring representation in line with ideologies of the public - Stopped a 93% SNP majority in Holyrood in 2019 by giving Labcon 55 more seats; 2016 Holyrood: maximum difference of 5% between the votes received and the MSPs returned.
- Senedd Cymru is moving to a more representative system - the D’Hondt Method
Does AMS have strong voter choice? Give a counterargument.
Strong; Two votes = vote for who they want representing their constituency AND the party they believe in. - Plaid Cymru almost tripled seats in Senedd Cymru, through regional seats
- Many voters may become confused by the two choices - May have been the cause of the 2024 45% turnout to Welsh Parliament elections
Does AMS create strong governments? Give a counterargument.
Weak; regional members lead to smaller or no majority and difficulty governing - No party has won a majority in Senedd Cymru since its creation
- Less political backlash due to unrepresentativeness - 5 MWPs can debate the constituencies different opinions
Does AMS have strong constituency-voter link? Give a counterargument.
Weak; regional representatives are unaccountable to a constituency - 80% of Labcon seats in Holyrood
- More representation = more people feel connected to an MP - SSA Survey (2019): 7.5x people in Scotland trust Holyrood “just about always” compared to Parliament
Outline how STV works and where it is used.
Does STV have strong proportionality?
Very strong, achieves maximum proportionality by adjusting seats to meet the quota - Average percentage difference between the votes and seats allotted in the Stormont election 2022 was 1.377%.
Does STV have strong voter-choice? Give a counterargument.
Strong; ranking parties allows for maximum (and genuine) choice
- Very complex, often results in donkey votes - 2022 Stormont election received 3x more than the 2022 general elections, as a proportion of the overall votes
Does STV make strong governments?
Weak, created shortly after the Troubles so Westminster wished to avoid a rebellion - No party in Stormont has more than 30% of seats currently; Current Stormont executive has 4 separate parties in it with Sinn Fein with the most at 5/12 seats
Does STV have strong constituency-voter link? Give a counterargument.
Weak; multi-member constituencies confuse people so they don’t know who their representative is
- Representatives are in competition with one another to provide the best service to constituents - Representatives in Malta are considered quite good, due to competing with one another
Outline how SV works
Does SV have strong proportionality? Give a counterargument.
Supposedly ensures that a candidate has a majority, legitimising decisions - Sadiq Khan won 55% of votes in 2016
- Weak: not actually true, due to ‘non-transferable votes’ not being counted - ERS: Sadiq Khan only mayor to gain a majority in 20 years; 214,000 votes wasted in 2021
Does SV have strong voter choice? Give a counterargument.
Weak; discriminates against smaller parties as they usually don’t gain enough votes to get to the second round - Independent Livingstone was the only non-LabCon London mayor; 214,000 votes wasted in 2021
- More votes are counted as less votes are wasted on smaller parties with little chance of winning - 277,000 votes transferred in 2021
Does SV make strong governments? Give a counterargument.
Strong: one representative, with a ‘legitimate’ mandate - Sadiq Khan won 55% of second round votes in 2016
- They don’t have a majority most of the time - only one Mayor has ever been voted in with more than 50% of the votes (Sadiq Khan) due to the volume of wasted votes.
- Even if we ignore that, most majorities are slim - 2016 election ignored 45% of second round votes
Does SV have strong constituency-voter link?
One representative means strong tie
- Centre for Cities finds that 88% of Londers can identify their Mayor, compared to only 25% who could name their MP
Sadiq Khan is a very famous public figure
