Unit 1 - Topic 2: Electoral Systems Flashcards
(39 cards)
What are the four main types of electoral system?
Majoritarian systems
Plurality systems
Proportional systems
Mixed systems
Name an example of a ‘mixed’ electoral system? Where has this system been used?
- Additional Member System (AMS)
- Scottish Parliament Elections
- Welsh Assembly
- London Assembly
What are the five electoral systems used in the UK? Where are they used?
- First Past The Post (General Elections)
- Suplementary Vote (Police & Crime Commisioners and Mayoral elections)
- Additional Member System (Scottish Parliament, Welsh and London assemblies)
- Closed Party List (Elections to European Parliament)
- Single Transferable Vote (Northern Ireland elections to NI Assembly and NI Local Authorities)
Give an example where, under FPTP, a winning candidate has won a seat with a relatively small share of the vote (due to the plurality system).
In 2010, Glenda Jackson won the Hampstead and Kilburn seat with less than one third of the votes cast:
- She won only 32.8% of the vote, compared to the 32.7% of her Tory opponent.
- She won only 42 more votes than her closest rival.
What are the four main characteristics of FPTP?
- Encourages two horse race
- Gives a winner’s bonus
- Penalises smaller parties
- Encourages single-party government
Give an example of how FPTP encourages a two horse race.
- In 1983, the SDP was severely punished for splitting from Labour (and becomning a third party). It won 25% of the vote share, but only 23 seats.
- As a result, there is little incentive for groups to break away from the two major parties.
Give an example of how FPTP has rewarded a winner’s bonus.
In 1997, Labour won a landslide majority despite having having less than half of the total vote share.
- Labour increased its vote share by 8.8%, yet gained 145 seats (that’s over 22% of the seats in parliament).
Give an example of how FPTP penalises smaller parties.
In 2015, UKIP won 12.6% of the total vote share, yet only a single parliamentary seat.
What is strong evidence for the ability of FPTP to produce single party government?
Since WW2, only the 1974 and 2010 general elections have failed to produce a majority government. This is rare.
What are the five main advantages of FPTP?
- Simplicity
- Clear outcome
- Strong, stable government
- Doctrine of the mandate
- Effective representation
Why does FPTP produce disproportionate outcomes?
- Two main parties receive a disproportionately larger share of votes (seen as unfair).
- Parties without geographical concentration are penalised unfairly.
- Parties have ‘electoral’ deserts, such as more recently in Scotland where only all but one of its 59 seats are SNP.
- A party can win a majority of seats with less of the total vote share than its nearest rival (e.g. in 1951, the Tories won more seats than Labour with less votes)
Give examples of how FPTP works on plurality rather than majority.
- In 2010, less than two thirds of MPs were elected on a majority of vote casts in their constituencies.
- No party since 1935 has won a majority of votes cast nationally.
Give examples of how FPTP produces wasted votes.
- In 2010, 53% of all votes went to the losing candidate.
- In 2010, 18% votes were in ‘excess’ to what the winning candidate needed to gain a plurality.
Describe how FPTP has led to ‘adversarial’ politics?
- In 1960s and 70s, small swings in general elections produced frequent changes in government. The succeeding party tended to scrap policies introduced by their rivals.
What are the advantages of AV?
- Representatives elected by majorities in constituencies (strong representation)
- Winning candidate needs broad support
- So fewer wasted votes
What are the disadvantages of AV?
- It is not proportional, and can produce less proportionate outcomes than FPTP. In 1997, Labour would have won a bigger landslide under AV.
- People who voted for small extremist parties more likely to have second preferences redistributed and counted.
- The most popular candidate in first round may be eliminated due to second preferences, so (in theory) the least popular candidate might be elected.
Describe Supplementary Vote
- Majoritarian system
- Exactly like AV, but voter records only first and second preference
Where is SV used in the UK?
Elections for:
- Mayor of London
- Police and Crime Commisioners
What are the advantages of SV?
- Winner needs broad support.
- Second preferences of voters who support minor parties not counted.
What are the disadvantages of SV?
- Winning candidate does not need majority of first preferences.
- Would not produce proportional outcome in GEs.
Describe the Party List system
- Multi-member constituencies
- Political parties produce lists of candidates in the order they will be elected.
- Voters cast one vote for the party of their choice.
- Seats allocated according to proportionate of votes cast.
What are the advantages of the Party List system?
- Very proportional (depending on district magnitude)
- Lists can be used to increase number of female/minority representatives.
What are the disadvantages of the Party List system?
- If closed list, voters can’t choose between candidates of same party.
- Parties control the order of candidates, so can put pro-leadership candidates at top of list.
- Link between representaitves and consituents is broken in multi-member constituencies.
Describe Single Transferable Vote (STV)
- Large multi-member constituencies
- Voters preferentially vote for candidates (as many or few as they like)
- A candidate needs to achieve a number of votes detirmined by the Droop formula. Votes that are in excess of this then have their second preferences redistributed.
- This continues until the total number of seats is filled by all candidates meeting the formula.
