elections in the UK Flashcards
(34 cards)
what elections are there in the UK?
-General elections, all seats in the commons come up for re-election takes place every five years.
-Devolved assembly elections, elections to Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies usually every 4 years.
-local elections, elections to districts, borough and county councils and elections for city mayours.
what are the functions of elections?
-form governments and remove unwanted governments
-ensure representation
-enable participation and uphold legitimacy
-educate the electorate.
why can the legitimacy of the representation be called into question?
-elected on less than 50% of the vote
-under other systems smaller parties can gain greater influence than their vote share suggests they should have.
example of the legitimacy of representation being questioned?
-2019 229 out of 650 MPs were elected in their constituency with less than 50% support from their constituents.
-voters have little say about which candidates are selected to stand in their constituency
-safe seat votes are worthless
how do elections improve legitimacy?
-elections play a crucial role in enabling participation which in turn makes elections legitimate.
-but called into question with the decline of participation.
how do elections educate the public? and how has this been called into question?
-parties need to explain their policies and to persuade voters that their solutions or answers to key problems are better than the alternatives.
-elections can include misinformation, half-truths, untruths and fake news and political solutions are simplified to slogans when in reality the politics is far more complex, for example ‘Get Brexit Done’
how do elections enhance democracy?
-general elections serve to transfer power from one government to the next in a peaceful and stable way.
-elections are a vital channel of communication between government and the people.
-elections play a crucial role in enabling participation which in turn makes elections legitimate.
-elections educate the public as one of their key functions.
how do elections not enhance democracy?
-elections may not always be successful in forming governments in a stable way.
-doubts have also been raised about the effectiveness of elections in ensuring representation.
-elections may not always be successful in upholding legitimacy due to FPTP and turnout.
-elections can also mis-educate the public with half truths and fake news.
what are non-proportional election systems?
-larger parties typically win a higher proportion of seats than the proportion of votes they gain in the election and increases the chances of a single party gaining a parliamentary majority and being able to govern on its own.
what are proportional election systems?
-guarantee an equal or at least a close and reliable relationship between the seats won by parties and the votes gained in an election.
what are the 4 different types of election systems used in the UK?
-plurality
-majority
-hybrid
-proportional
what is a plurality system?
-the largest number out of a collection of numbers, for example the winner only needs one more vote than the second place candidate.
what is a majority system?
-winning candidate must receive an overall majority of at least 50% of the vote.
what is a hybrid system?
-uses both plurality and proportional elements to achieve a more proportional outcome than plurality would alone but less than proportional would alone.
what is a proportional system?
-system that tends to represent parties in-line with their electoral support, often portrayed as proportional representation.
example of a proportional system?
-northern Ireland Assembly, single transferable votes.
example of a plurality system?
-FPTP and UK General Election.
example of a Hybrid system?
-additional member system and Scottish Parliament.
what are the implications of safe seats/wasted votes?
-safe seats were the cause of 22 million wasted votes in 2015, half the electorate.
-voters lack real choice because they cannot effect the outcome.
-bad for democracy as hard to hold to account and unlikely to ever be removed.
-voters lack real choice as they cannot effect the outcome.
-votes aren’t the same value as non-safe seats.
-encourages parties to give-up or ignore some seats.
-harder for smaller parties to be elected.
what are the implications of marginal seats?
-parties concentrate their efforts on marginal seats.
-character and policies of the candidate becomes more important in marginal seats.
-may result in tactical voting and raises the question as to wether voters have a real choice.
example of FPTP working against small parties?
-UKIP 2015, 3,381,099 votes and only got 1 seat.
advantages of the Additional Member System?
-allows voters to make wider and more considered choices.
-allows voters to express personal support for a candidate while voting for a different party with their second vote.
-every voter has at least one effective vote and this removes the electoral desert effect.
disadvantages of the Additional Member System?
-constituency representation is less effective than FPTP, because of the larger size of constituencies and because a proportion of representatives have no constituency duties.
-system creates confusion by having two classes of representative, many are accountable to party leaderships more than they are to voters.
-it can be complicated, people can become confused over exactly what they are supposed to do with their two votes.
advantages of supplementary vote?
-simple to understand and would be easy for voters to use, it is familiar and the constituency boundaries would stay the same, all that would change would be the ballot papers.
-maintains traditional links between MPs and their constituencies and those elected would usually have the support of the majority of their constituents.
-like FPTP it penalises extremist parties who are unlikely to gain many first preference votes.
