Electoral Systems

Question 1

Where is Closed Regional list used?

Answer 1

European parliamentary elections

Question 2

Where is First past the post used?

Answer 2

General elections
Local council elections
(Police and Crime Commissioner elections) Conservatives are trying to change this so it uses FPTP

Question 3

Where is Additional member system?

Answer 3

Welsh assemblies
Scottish parliament
Greater London assembly

Question 4

Where is the Alternative vote used?

Answer 4

Local Labour elections

Question 5

Where is the supplementary vote used?

Answer 5

Police and crime commissioner elections

Question 6

Where is the single transferable vote used?

Answer 6

Northern Ireland assemblies

Question 7

What type of electoral system does STV use?

Answer 7

Proportional representation

Question 8

What type of system does Supplementary vote use?

Answer 8

Majoritarian

Question 9

What type of electoral system does AV use?

Answer 9

Majoritarian

Question 10

What type of system does the Additional member system use?

Answer 10

Hybrid systems; FPTP and CPRL with elements of simple plurality and proportionality

Question 11

What type of system does FPTP use?

Answer 11

Simple Majority

Question 12

What are the 6 criteria questions to judge electoral systems?

Answer 12

Do the produce a fair result?
Is there a choice of candidate in each constituency?
How strong is the link between candidate and constituency?
Does the electoral system tend to produce strong and stable government?
Is the system easy to understand?
Do all of the votes have equal value?

Question 13

What are the (4) strengths of First Past the Post?

Answer 13

Speedy and Simple, results are next morning
Produces a strong and stable government
Exclusion of extremists
A strong link between MPs their constituency

Question 14

What are the (6) weaknesses of FPTP

Answer 14

The votes do not have equal value
There isn’t a choice of candidate
Limited voter choice, (safe seat votes don’t count)
Lack of proportionality, UKIP got 3.8m votes and 1 seat
MPs can be elected on less that 50% of the vote
Doesn’t always produce strong stable government (1974, 2010, 2017)

Question 15

What are the (2) strengths of Closed Party Regional list?

Answer 15

Representative of all parties

Helps parties that are regionally spread out

Question 16

What are the (3) weaknesses of Closed Party Regional list?

Answer 16

Produces weak and wobbly coalitions
It has bad / weak MP constituency link
Enables extremist parties to gain seats

Question 17

What are the (4) strengths of Single transferable vote?

Answer 17

All parties are fairly represented
There is a close correlation between votes and seats
Voter choice is high
In Northern Ireland it has created shared representation of rival communities.

Question 18

What are the (3) Weakness of Single Transferrable vote?

Answer 18

Doesn’t exclude extremist parties like the BNP
Not quick or easy for the electorate to understand
In a large multi member constituency the MP link is weak

Question 19

What are the (3) strengths of supplementary votes?

Answer 19

MPs have to be elected on more than 50% of the vote
Would produce strong stable government
Strong MP constituency link

Question 20

What are the (2) weaknesses of supplementary vote?

Answer 20

The winner doesn’t need an absolute majority

SV is not proportional as one individual is being elected

Question 21

What are the (3) strengths of AV?

Answer 21

Strong MP constituency link
Produces strong stable government
Easy for electorate to understand

Question 22

What is the weakness of AV?

Answer 22

Electorate don’t have a say of who the candidate is

Question 23

What are the (3) strengths of AMS?

Answer 23

The top up component adds an element of proportionality
FPTP maintains strong MP constituency link
It produces a fair result using FPTP

Question 24

What are the (4) weaknesses of of AMS?

Answer 24

Produce minority governments or coalitions
Smaller parties achieve less representation
It creates two type of member some with constituency power some without
There is no choice of candidate
The votes do not all have equal value