Chapter 18

Question 1

District Magnitude

Answer 1

Number of political offices being elected in particular vote

Question 2

Single Member Districts (M1)

Answer 2

Voters elect one member to represent district

Question 3

Simple Plurality/First-past-the-post (FPTP)

Answer 3

Candidate who wins plurality of votes wins election
-Uses categorical ballot
-US, UK, Canada, India
Advantage: simple
Disadvantage: winner may not have won majority of votes

Question 4

Two Round System

Answer 4

Voters cast on categorical ballot, if no candidate wins majority => it goes to a run-off
-France, Mongolia, Iran, Mali
Advantage: Ensure winner received majority vote
Disadvantage: Time/cost of holding second election

Question 5

Alternative vote

Answer 5

Single member district but uses an ordinal ballot
-avoids strategic voting
-Australia

Question 6

List Pr

Answer 6

Parties prepare a hierarchical list of candidates
-most common electoral system in the world
-1) Closed List: voters just vote for a party, cannot choose particular candidates
2) Open List: voters can vote for particular candidates

Question 7

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

Answer 7

-PR system with ordinal voting
-Voters rank all candidates across all parties
-Ireland, Australia’s senate, Malta

Question 8

Mixture of FPTP/PR

Answer 8

Some seats elected using FPTP and some elected using PR
-voters get 2 votes, one for each

Question 9

Mixed Member Proportional

Answer 9

Mixed System that ensures proportional outcomes

Question 10

Consequences

Answer 10

-Plurality could give a party majority of power without the majority of votes
-Duverger’s Law: Plurality leads to 2 party systems, PR leads to multiparty systems
-plurality leads to single-party majority, PR leads to coalition gov
-turnout is higher with PR