AMS

• Hybrid electoral system, combining FPTP and closed party list, used in Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly
• Voters have 2 different ballots, one for their constituency where they elect a person using FPTP, and a regional vote for a party using closed party list
• Constituency vote - counted first
• Constituency vote - Scotland divided into 73 single member constituencies and Wales into 40
• Regional vote - first ballots are thrown away and Scotland and Wales divided into large multi-member constituencies
• Regional vote - Scotland has 8 constituencies with 7 members in each and Wales has 5 constituencies with 4 members in each
• Regional vote - each party draws up a list of candidates for each region to choose from and rank
• Regional vote - counted using d'Hondt method -> number of regional votes / number of seats + 1
• Regional vote - first seat given to party with highest number and then d'Hondt repeated until all seats are allocated
• More proportional system - parties can do well in second count if they haven't in the first. 2016 Cons gained 22% of first votes and 7 seats. 2nd vote they gained 23% of votes and 24 seats.
• Advantage - worked where used
• Advantage - greater representation than FPTP
• Advantage - more proportional than FPTP , harder to gain regional votes if parties have a lot of constituency votes so more reflective of the electorate
• Advantage - smaller parties given more of a chance to be elected, unlike FPTP and SV
• Advantage - more pluralist than FPTP, split ticket voting which ensures more voter choice (two votes)
• Advantage - strong constituency link like in FPTP
• Advantage - winners must have broad popularity so have greater consent and thus democratic legitimacy than FPTP which highlights parties with concentrated support
• Disadvantage - forms coalitions rather than strong, single parties like FPTP is supposed to, only in 2011 did Scotland gain a single party (SNP) government using AMS
• Disadvantage - 2/3 are elected using FPTP so has same disadvantages
• Disadvantage - parties control list of candidates so have excessive influence
• Disadvantage - extremist parties given more of a platform than in FPTP
• Disadvantage - relatively difficult to understand so can impact turnout negatively
• Disadvantage - different representatives can cause tension, confusion and blur accountability. Each person in Scotland has one local MSP, seven MSPs and one MP in Parliament.
• Disadvantages - forms coalitions but can be stable (look at 2010-15 coalition) but that led to Lib Dem being wiped out and blamed, so smaller parties are not as attracted to that idea
• Disadvantage - forms coalitions but then nationalist and unionist parties gain influence BUT then again Conservatives are the second largest party in Scotland