Elections and referendums

Question 1

FPTP

What are 3 advantages of FPTP

Answer 1

1. mostly results in a clear majority government
2. promotes a system where 2 parties dominate
3. Small constituencies are represented

Question 2

FPTP

Give 3 disadvantages of FPTP

Answer 2

1. not proportional as votes are not translated into seats
2. limited choice due to safe seats
3. government could be elected with a minority popular vote which does not reflect the will of the people

Question 3

FPTP

Give an example of how votes are not translated into seats in FPTP

Answer 3

in 2015 GE the 1.4 million SNP votes were highly concentrated in scotland and gave them 56 seats whereas UKIP’s 3.8 million votes translated into 1 seat

Question 4

FPTP

Give an example of how FPTP promotes safe seats

Answer 4

Theresa May’s constituency Maidenshead is a safe seat with conservatives winning over 60% votes in 2017

Question 5

STV

Give 3 advantages of the STV system

Answer 5

1. lots of political choice
2. proportional seats won
3. encourages positive campaigning as candidates want to win transferred votes from other candidates

Question 6

STV

What are 3 disadvantages of the STV system

Answer 6

1. link between members and voters are weak due to lots of members representing the same constituency
2. more complicated and can take longer than FPTP to reach a final result
3. could encourage donkey voting - where candidates just write the order of MP’s that appear on the ballot

Question 7

Explain the Additional member system for voting

Answer 7

FPTP is used to vote for a representative for their constituency and then an additional ‘party list’ vote is cast to elect an additional member
additional members are then added to regional consituencies

Question 8

Give an example of something that uses AMS

Answer 8

Scotting parliament elections
73 members elected with FPTP and 56 additional members that are allocated into regional seats

Question 9

Give 3 advantages of AMS

Answer 9

1. Strong link between MP and constituents that vote for them
2. proportionality - assigning regional seats based on the number of votes for that party
3. choice - can ‘split-ticket’ vote for a party and a representative they like

Question 10

Give 3 disadvantages of AMS

Answer 10

1. smaller parties are less represented as the party list system can advanatge larger parties (for example wales’s ‘top–up’ seats favour labour)
2. party list candidates have less legitimacy as they are not voted inn through a personla mandate from voters
3. lacks democratic transparency as the party decides the rank of representatives on the ‘party-list’

Question 11

How does the Supplementary vote work (SV)

Answer 11

A voter has a first and second preference - if a candidate wins over 50% of the vote then they are elected but if no one does then all of the candidates apart from the top 2 are eliminated and the vote takes place again with the top two candidates

Question 12

Give an example of where the SV vote is used

Answer 12

London Mayor elections and police and crime commissioner elections

Question 13

Give 2 advantages of SV

Answer 13

1. simple - voters only need to mark an X on their top two candidate
2. encourages positive campaigning as the candidates will need the support of other parties if there is a second vote

Question 14

Give an example of how the SV system ensures large majority

Answer 14

Sadiq Khan winning 56.6% of the vote in the 2016 London Mayor election

Question 15

Give 3 disadvantages of the SV system

Answer 15

1. votes can be wasted
2. doesnt require an abolute majority only the most votes in the second round
3. not proportional to the votes of the people as only one candidiate is elected rather than mutiple proportionally

Question 16

Give an example of how votes can be wasted with the SV system

Answer 16

2012 London Mayor elections - 15% of votes wasted in round 1 and 7% in round 2

Question 17

What are 3 arguments for FPTP to be replaced for westminister elections

Answer 17

1. Doesn’t always results is a strong single-party majority government (2017 May’s gov)
2. Votes are ‘wasted’ in safe-seats and smaller parties
3. encourages negative or ‘tactical voting’ especially in marginal constituencies

Question 18

Give an example of FPTP promoting ‘tactical voting’

Answer 18

in 2019 election many voters supported labour or the Lib-Dems to prevent brexit from happening

Question 19

Give 3 arguments against replacing the FPTP system for westminister elections

Answer 19

1. traditionally produced strong and relatively stable governments
2. Strong link between MP and constituents
3. Favours a political culture of two dominating parties which causes them to have a broad appeal (e.g. new labour moving to the center)

Question 20

Factors that affect voting behavior

Give 3 factors that affect voting behavior in the UK

Answer 20

1. role of campaign or media
2. competancy of current government
3. social class, gender, ethnicity

Question 21

Factors that affect voting behavior

Give an example of a Labour safe seat

Answer 21

South yorkshire - former coalfield areas have been a safe seat since the 70s due to working class supporters

Question 22

Factors that affect voting behavior

What are 4 key changes in votinng behavior since the 1970s

Answer 22

1. class dealignment
2. partisan dealignment
3. more swing voters
4. rise of identity voters

Question 23

what was the backround of the1983 election

Answer 23

rising unemployment (3 million)
1982 falklands war victory
divided opposition from labour and SDP liberal alliance gave conservative the win

Question 24

1983

How did the conservative government majority increase from 1979 to 1983

Answer 24

went from 43 to 144

Question 25

# 1983 What was a small party's significance in the 1983 election

Answer 25

the strong showing of the SDP - liberal alliance had the effect of handing seats from labour to conservative

Question 26

# 1983 What was labours turnout in the 1983 election

Answer 26

labour came 3rd or worse in 292 constituencies

Question 27

# 1983 What was the % vote share in 1983

Answer 27

Conservative - 42.4% Labour - 27.6% SDP-Liberal alliance - 25.4% others - 4.6%

Question 28

# 1983 How did the media effect the 1983 election

Answer 28

the 'maggie cult' within newspapers the sun encouraged reader to 'vote for maggie' whilst also headlining once 'do you seriously want this old man to run britain?' about labour leader micheal foot Labour was suported by 22% of circulating newspapers such as the daily mirror Maragret was more sharp during TV interviews than Foot

Question 29

# 1983 What was the label of the 1983 labour manifesto

Answer 29

'The new hope for britain' - now seen as too left wing

Question 30

# 1983 What did Gerald Kaufmann describe the 1983 labour manifesto as

Answer 30

'the longest suicide note in history'

Question 31

# 1983 What were the issues with the 1983 labour manifesto

Answer 31

Foot and deputy leader dennis healy confirmed disagreement over defense policy - harmed party unity pledges contained nuclear disarmament,withdrawal from european community and abolish HOL

Question 32

# 1983 What was the Label of the Conservative 1983 manifesto

Answer 32

'Foward-the challenge of our times'

Question 33

# 1983 What were promises in the conservative 1983 manifesto

Answer 33

trade union reform, privatisation to include british airways with shared being sold to employees and the public

Question 34

# 1983 How did margaret thastcher interact with the media

Answer 34

toured the Uk in 'superbus' to secure best publicity shots, thatchers advisers told her all efforts should be put towards TV appearences and she was flown in on a helicopter on the last day of campaigning to the british hoverctaft coorperation and was photographed in front of a huge union jack - patrotic and highlighting falklands war victory

Question 35

# 1983 What was the SDP-liberal alliace manifesto label

Answer 35

'Working together for Britain'

Question 36

# 1983 What were the SDP-liberal alliances manifesto pledges

Answer 36

Electoral system reform and scotland and wales devolution

Question 37

# 1983 What was the impact of the conservative leader in 1983 election

Answer 37

1. 16 TV interviews and an ITV documetary 2. patrotic as she took down italian paintings and replaced them for british heroes 3. presedential style conventions with music and union jacks which were ticketed invitation-only so no unwanted voices could be heard- crowd was full of cheers to highlight her popularity

Question 38

# 1983 What was the impact of Labours leadership in the 1983 election

Answer 38

Foot was portaryed as left-wing and ill suited to leading his own party let alone the country

Question 39

# 1983 How did the 1983 election affect conservative policy making

Answer 39

major commons majority allowed them to push thorugh legislation such as further privatisation and take on the powerful miners union led by arthur scargill, the strike from 1984-85 represented a major victory for her

Question 40

# 1983 How did the 1983 election affect labours policy making

Answer 40

scale of their defeat made them gradually move to a more centurist party with Neil Kinnock as foots sucessor

Question 41

# 1983 How did the electoral system affect the 1983 election

Answer 41

calculated that 23% of seats would not have been won if proportional voting had occurred FPTP penalised small party adding a bonus to conservatives huge mismatch between vote share and seats won

Question 42

# 1997 What was the backround of the 1997 election

Answer 42

Labour has increasingly won seats in the 1987 and 1992 elections labours 'third way' had moved away from socialist ideologies with clause IV rewritten Conservative party was divided as the economy had been in recession and there was a economic crisis in 1992 'european exhange rate mechanism' which led to devaluation of the pound

Question 43

# 1997 What was the seat share in the 1997 election

Answer 43

labour - 418 conservative - 165 lib dems - 46 others - 30

Question 44

# 1997 give an example of a tory minister loosing their seat in the 1997 election

Answer 44

'portillo moment' Micheal portillo lost his enfield southgate seat on a 17.4% swing to labour he was the former defense minister and said to be the next tory leader

Question 45

# 1997 What were some important aspects of the 1997 election

Answer 45

record number of 120 women MP's (101 labour) labour defeated conservatives in every age group labour won the same number as the conservatives under the C1 social class

Question 46

# 1997 Explain the role of the media to labour in 1997

Answer 46

The sun switched to labour as blair flew out to australia to meet the owner in 1995 the evening before the election - in 1992 the sun criticsed kinnock wheras in 1997 they praised blair 'it must be you'

Question 47

# 1997 explain the role of the media for conservatives in 1997

Answer 47

pro-tory newspapers such as the daily mail were more muted for major than for thatcher - stayed loyal but were not loudly supportive

Question 48

# 1997 what percentage of newspapers read were labour

Answer 48

62% of overall newpaper readership was pro-labour

Question 49

# 1997 What was the general significance of manifestos in the 1997 election

Answer 49

voters werent presented with polarised pledges and instead the personality and wider perception of the parties is what mattered

Question 50

# 1997 What was labours manifesto like in 1997

Answer 50

strayed from outdated socialist ideology some manifesto pledges include - reform HOL, devolution and encorperate ECHR into UK law and national minimum wage introduced

Question 51

# 1997 What was the label of the conservatives 1997 manifesto

Answer 51

'you can only be sure with the conservatives'

Question 52

# 1997 What was the conservative manifesto like in 1997

Answer 52

privatisation would continue and extend to royal mail, lower income tax to 20% publish school exam results

Question 53

# 1997 How did labours leader impact the 1997 election

Answer 53

blair was young, energetic and charasmatic key aides such as alistair campbell Blair went to oxford and contrasted with his deputy leader prescott who faled the 11+ and worked as a ship steward

Question 54

# 1997 How did the leadership of the conservatives impact the 1997 election

Answer 54

mayor had an image problem beying protrayed as grey and old in cartoons relied on attacking blair and labour in 'new labour,new danger' posters giving blair devil eyes

Question 55

# 1997 How did the 1997 election affect labour policy making

Answer 55

majority led him to pass major constitutional reforms made blair feel invinsible such as incidents of the 2003 iraq war

Question 56

# 1997 How did the 1997 election effect conservative policy making

Answer 56

marked the start of political wilderness, moving away from 'nasty party' label and able to put forward more one-nation approach fpr cameron in 2010

Question 57

# 1997 What was the significance of FPTP to the 1997 election

Answer 57

over-rewarded victors while under-rewarding the princple opposition and punishing the third party

Question 58

# 2019 what was the backround of the 2019 election

Answer 58

brought an end to 9 years of coalition, small majority and minority conservative government Johnson had already been PM for 5 months but struggled like may to achieve strong party unity but couldnt call an election due to 2011 act, he did this under the early parliamentary general election act 2019 election was dominated by brexit

Question 59

# 2019 what was the result of the 2019 election

Answer 59

80 seat conservative majority

Question 60

# 2019 what was the seat share in the 2019 election

Answer 60

conservative - 365 labour - 203 lib dem - 11 SNP - 48

Question 61

# 2019 What was the biggest swing in the 2019 election

Answer 61

the nottinghamshire seat of bassetlaw which voted leave 18% of votes went from labour to conservative

Question 62

# 2019 How did the media effect the conservatives in the 2019 election

Answer 62

The sun rooted heavily for johnson, a banner ad featured on a conservative advert linked to a 78 second video on auto-play and appprox 3.5 million people had watched the first 30 secionds of it on the first day of release alone also particpated in ITV main leaders debate on november 19th

Question 63

# 2019 How did the media effect labour in the 2019 election

Answer 63

spent £1.4 million on facebook advertising (conservatives spent 900,000) but this mainly targetted young people so was not beneficial joined Conservatives to kick lib dems and SNP out of ITV main leader debate november 19th

Question 64

# 2019 What was the conservative manifesto like in 2019

Answer 64

'get brexit done, unleash britains potential' 50,000 new nurses and no rise in income tax

Question 65

# 2019 What was Labours 2019 manifesto like

Answer 65

'the final say on brexit' - confused as voters thought the result of the refferndum was the final say pledged for a second refferendum 6 months in the future on a renegotiated brexit deal minimum wage to £10 an hour and 4.3% increase in health spending

Question 66

# 2019 What did the Lib dem 2019 manifesto look like

Answer 66

'Stop Brexit, build a brighter future' new leader Jo Swinson - revoke article 50 and rejoin the EU 35 hours of free childcare from 9 months old

Question 67

# 2019 How did leadership effect the conservative 2019 election

Answer 67

Good campaign led by campaign manager issac levido - johnson had a more popularist style campaign stayed on the message 'get brexit done' johnson drove a JCB through a polystyrene 'brexit' wall as a publicity stunt

Question 68

# 2019 How did leadership effect labour in the 2019 election

Answer 68

Corbyn suprisingly came across well in 2017 but not so much in 2019 seen as too 'metropolitan' and detached from ordinary voters many voters in working class seats said they switched their vote out of personal dislike

Question 69

# 2019 How did leadership effect the Lib dems in the 2019 election

Answer 69

many felt their pledge to remain ditched demopcracy and the idea of a 'people's vote' the party ssswitched its main thrust to urging voters to deny johnsons majority

Question 70

# 2019 How did the 2019 election affect policy making

Answer 70

Conservatives were able to go through with 2020 EU withdrawal bill however COVID 19 came and policy mkaing instantly became about crisis management forcing the governent to improvise plans such as 'each out to help out' to rise universal credit payments

Question 71

# 2019 Give a stat of how FPTP favoured the SNP in 2019

Answer 71

the conservatives won 1 seat for every 38,264 votes SNP won 1 seat for every 25,883 votes

Question 72

# 2019 How did FPTP affect the 2019 election

Answer 72

over rewarded winning party and SNP ensured a strong government but with an exaggerated majority

Question 73

Give me a GE with a high voter turnout

Answer 73

1992 GE 77.7%

Question 74

example of low turnout with fptp

Answer 74

2024 - 59.%