voting systems

Question 1

what is FPTP?

Answer 1

• person with largest number of votes wins regardless the percentage of votes garnered (2015 C 37%)

Question 2

what is additional member system? (AMS)

Answer 2

• mixture of list pr and FPTP
• used for S and W Parliament
• voters vote for constituent representative and regional representative
• S, 73 MSPs elected from FPTP then 56 from list pr

Question 3

what is single transferable vote (STV)?

Answer 3

• used in NI
• multi member constituencies where voters rank their preference
• candidate who has more than quota is elected surplus voters transferred to voters next choice and so on and so forth

Question 4

what is alternative vote (AV)?

Answer 4

• used by labour and lib dems to elect party leader
• voters ranks candidates how they like, similiar to stv but there are single member constituencies also no quota
• if nobody gets half the votes the losers votes are distributed accoriding to voters preference.

Question 5

evaluation of FPTP

Answer 5

• exaggerates vote share, 1997 L 63% of seats but 43% of vote
• many wasted votes
• discourages turnout
• produces strong gov
• easy to understand

Question 6

evaluation of AMS

Answer 6

• less chance of votes being wasted for smaller parties
• produces minority gov
• 3rd parties have better representation
• more complicated

Question 7

evaluation of STV

Answer 7

• representative
• reduces wasted votes
• produces coalition gov
• greater incentive to vote for minor parties
• not easy to understand

Question 8

evaluation of AV

Answer 8

• not proportional
• removes tactical voting
• no wasted votes
• most likely to produce single party gov
• easy to understand