different electoral systems

• Elections must be held every five years, using first past the post voting system.
• The Positives of UK Elections

  • Free and Fair
  • First Past The Post, (simple and quick)
  • Use of proportional representation
  • Turnout in line with other Western democracies
• Negatives of UK Election

  • First Past the Post (leaves minor parties under-represented)
  • General public apathy towards politics
• Role of Elections in the UK - Representation

  the most fundemental role of all elections is to choose a representatvie on behalf of the consitituence and provide a link MP's can choose to make choices that go against their consituence but that could cause them to be unpopular, They stand for Themseleves, Their party and the consitiuency
• Role of elections in the UK - Choosing Government

  at General election voters are choosing a government and granting it legitimacy and usually due to FPTP a majorty government is chosen, with the expetion in recent years of 2010 and 2017
• Role of elections in the UK - Holding Government To Account

  Usually every 5 years the current government has to face the public at General elction in which if the public believe them to have failed they will be removed and a new gov. will be chosen. MP's can also be held accountable at these general elections such as Lib Dem Leader Jo Swinson losing her seat to the SNP candidate in 2015

  the 2015 Recall of MP's act
• Role of elections in the UK - Partcipation.

  votingin elections is the most obvious form of participation in UK politics however many people do not read the party manifestos or mistrust politicians For example 67% of the electorate turned out to vote in the 2019 general election
• Role of Elections in the UK - Influence over policy

  Voters themselves have very limited influence over policy that parties put forward however election results send a message to the parties on what policies are deemed to be popular and those that are not as parties that keep unpopular policies tend to fail at elections. For example after the invasion of Iraq by the Blair government saw the labour majorty fall significantly from when he was first elected in 2005 he only held 35% of the vote compared to the 43% of 1997
• First Past The Post - What is it and How does it work?

  each voter can only vote for one candidate and the candidate that recieves the most votes wins it is a "winner-takes-all" electoral system, a candidate can get much less than 50% of the vote and still take the seat as MP, and eventually the party with the most MPs takes government
• FPTP - Advantages

  • creates stable and strong governments (Blairs 179 seat = 63% majority)
  • MPs have a close relationship to their consituents and regularly hold 'Surgeries'
  • The most preferred candidate wins
  • simple and easy to understand and operate
  • quick to produce a result (Newcastle Central released its results in 2017 only an hour after voting had closed)
  • keeps out small 'extremist' parties (UKIP only winning one seat in 2017 despite gaining 12% of the vote)
• Disadvantages of FPTP

  • Discriminates in favour of the two central parties
  • Government can be unrepresentative
  • Votes are wasted on losing candidates or in huge majorities so not every vote is 'worth' the same
  • Other systems also offer good links to the MP
  • Most MPs do not achieve 50% of the vote so are not representative
  • 'Winners Bonus' - even if a seat is marginal it is the winner that takes all
  • Discriminates against smaller parties
• Examples of FPTP disadvantages

  • Orkney and Shetland has been a Lib Dem safe seat since 1950 so there is 'no point' in trying to change it
  • Reform Society estimates that 56% of seats are safe seats
  • Green party won 2% of the vote but gained only 1 seat in 2019 compared to Plaid Cymru who gained 0.5% of the vote but 4 seats
• Additional Members system - What is it and how does it work?

  Used in the scottish parliament - voters have 2 different votes, so a voter first chooses for their local consitiuency using FPTP (73 MSPs are chosen this way) the second vote is used to select a political party, known as the 'top-up' list (56 MSPs are chosen this way), Produces 2 types of representative (Regional and local) the party 'top-up' vote makes the overall result more proportial and come in 4-year fixed terms
• AMS - Advantages

  • It is proportial, the 'top-up' list acts as a 'corrective' to the FPTP element (for example in Scotland the Conservatives won no seats in Westminister under FPTP but the list enabled the Scottish Conservatives to win 18 seats in the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999)
  • the relationship between voter and MP/MSP is retained due to the FPTP element
  • Wider choice than strict FPTP as they can use the consituency vote to vote for one party and the 'top-up' vote for another party
  • A coalition is more likely
• AMS - Disadvantages

  • list members are chosen by the party and are answerable to the party rather than the voter giving more control to the party
  • smaller parties are still underrepresented than a fully proportinate system (In Wales where the small number of top up seats has historically advantaged only Labour)
  • Having two different types of representative may create animosity those elected through the party list may be seen as, 'getting in through the back door'
  • It is fairly complicated so peole may get confused on what to do
• Single Transferrable Vote - What is it and how does it work?

  Used in NI assembly and scottish local council, in NI the consituency elects 5 members to make up 90 in total in the Assembly, voters cast their vote in number of preference up to 5, the quota is then calculated by the system and is done until all seats are filled
• STV - Advantages

  • fewer votes are wasted so most votes help to elect the candidate
  • there is much greater voter choice as voters can choose between parties or choose between candidates within the parties
  • offers voters more than one representative to approach with their concerns post-elections
  • no safe seats meaning candidatesw can not be complacent and parties must campagin everywhere
  • no need for tactical voting
  • A coalition government is more likely 'power-sharing' (In NI this means that the nationalists and the unionists must work together, ending 30 year of violent disturbances)
• Disadvantages of STV (Single Transferable Vote)

  • Counting the results take longer than most systems
  • Can lead to 'donkey voting' where voters just vote for candidates in the order they appear
  • In MMCs the ballots can be big and confusing (In Scotland large amount of ballot papers were spoiled when it was introduced in 2007 due to this)
  • MMCs means lines of accountability are less clear
  • Power-sharing governments can still have conflict (the NI assembly has been suspended multiple times due to the different parties being unable to come to a compromise, one time for five years between 2002-2007)
  • Voting across party lines is possible but very very rare
• Electoral systems

  • Impact on party representation
• Smaller parties appear to have a more vested interest in reforming the electoral system as it would benefit them
• There is little chance of electoral reform happening, even after the coalition in 2015 there is little demand for reform
• Despite this, almost a quarter of the electorate voted for a different party than Tory, Labour or Lib Dem
• AMS (Additional Member System)


  Has helped the parties in the regional bodies turn their thinly spread support into seats
• UKIP in 2016


  • Failed to win any seats in Scotland, Wales and London Assembly but had enough support to win top up votes in Wales and London
• Impacts of Electoral systems - Voter choice

  different electoral systems other than FPTP (STV, AMS) has seen a greater choice for voters so sees fewer wasted votes as voters have more to choose from, however even with the greater choice if yo ulive in a 'safe seat' it has little effect on the expected outcome
• Impacts of electoral systems - seats reflects votes

  The greater proportionallity of the voting systems means that seats are more greater reflected by the votes such as in the 2016 scottish parliament election the SNP won 59 out of 73 constiutencys but only receieved 4 list seats meaning they ended up with 63 seats out of 129 - just short of a majority
• Impacts of electoral systems - Coalitions

  a consequence of having a PR system means that Coalitions and minority govs. are far more likely however under the PR systems than in the mostly single rule Westminister. Governments dont appear to be unstable and like westminister there is still little change in government as the devolved bodies have had the same party in power for a while
• Impacts of electoral systems - Politics of Compromise

  1. Negotiations between parties

  2. Remain rare in Westminster

  3. Become more normal in devolved bodies
• Northern Ireland political system

  • Nationalists and unionists are forced to work together
  • Deputy and first minister are from two different parties
  • Share the same amount of power and duties
  • System is designed for them to share the power
• Impacts of electoral systems - Politics of compromise

  In 2011 the minority SNP in Scotland had to negotiate with the conservatives and Lib Dems in order to get through its budget