Electoral systems

Created by

Ria Sammy

Cards (99)

what are the main functions of an electoral system
- Choose representatives.
- Citizens become more involved in politics.
- Government and elected individuals can be held accountable
positive aspects of the UK elections
- little corruption and punishable by law
- Safeguarded by the electoral commission which is independent
- Clear representation for citizens
what is the role of the electoral commission during elections
- political parties elections and referndums act 2000
- registering political parties
- electoral registers
- rules are followed
what is FPTP
- highest number of votes is elected.
- victory achieved by having one more vote than the other
example of tony blair trying to chnage the voting system
The Bill makes provision for elections to the European Parliament in Great Britain to be conducted using a regional list electoral system.
labour government tried to pass the european parliamentary elections bill in 1998 - rejected by the house of lords
- rejected in 1999
- government invoked parliament act 1949
what is AMS
- additional members system
- hybrid
- voter makes two choices
- voter selects a representative on a FPTP system
- a second vote for a second additional representative
what is STV
Single transferable vote
- voters rank their voting preferences in numerical order
- candidates must obtain a quota
- fewest votes eliminated and votes transferred
- excess votes above the quota also transferred.
pluarity system
an electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not receive a majority;
key features of FPTP
- small, single member constituencies
- winner takes all based on plurality
- voting is simple
- voters get one vote for one candidate
- choose candidate not party
how does FPTP operate
- divides country into 650 constituencies
advantages of FPTP 
- close MP constituency relationship -
- one party strong government - five years to put into plan
- small extremist parties find it hard to gain votes
- simplicity - easily understood and familar
example of winning party not getting power in government under a proportional system
- 2019 belgium N-VA own the federal election with 25 seats closet rivals with 20
- governemnt still formed
only majority government since 1945 which has not survived full term
- james callaghan who took over as PM mid term from harold wilson
- october 1974 labour small majority
- 1979 majority whistled away through by election defeats
- 1979 lost of vote of no confience
low number of invalid ballots through FPTP
- 2019 0.3%
- 2015 - 0.2%
exampels of first past the post limitign extremism
- 2010 british national party won 1.9%
- best constituency result was to finish in 3rd place in barking
example of strong third party without concentrated support under FPTP
- 2015 UKIP won 12.6% of vote and 1 seat
example of disproportionality from 2019 gen election
- number of votes to elect a single MP
- green 860,000
- conservative - 38,000
estimates of wasted votes
- 2019 - 71.2%
- 2015 - 74.4%
disadvantages of FPTP 
- minority of the vote - mp can be voted and elected as low as 35%
- less than 50% - 2015 conservatives won with 36.9% and 63.1% for other parties
- tatical voting - not bothering to vote as they think their vote will have little chance
- advantage to parties that have concentrated support in regions
What is a safe seat?
- some constituencies are safe seats meaning there is little real choice for voters
- dominic Raab had a seat for years esher and walton had a majority of 30,000 now 3,000
example of a safe seat
- 2019
- 421 of the 650 seats were won by a majority
- 2015 only 319 out of thr 650 MPs won a majority
- 50 MPs won a seat with less than 40% of the vote
what is a minority seat
- a minority choose the winning candidate
what is concentrated support 
FPTP favour support in concentrated areas
example 2019 election
CP - 43.6% of the vote
56.2% of seats
365 seats
concentrated in south and central England

green party 2.7% of vote and 1 seat and is very widely dispersed
example of the spoiler effect
- 2010 UKIP won 919,000 votes
- if ukip wasnt the case would have voted for CP
- 10 constituencies were UKIP won more votes than labour or lib dems
- ukip votes by casting there votes allowed a party which they were ideologically opposed to take a seat
2 main parties enjoy geographical support 
- CP - south and central england
- LP - industrial and urban northern england and wales
what is the red wall
- constituencies in the midlands and northern england that were historically labour but in the lead up to brexit shifted to conservative after the 2019 general election
conversion votes to seats
- transferring the number of votes to seats
2019 - average votes needed for one member
green party - 800,000
conservative 38,000
what is a safe seat
- a seat in which the person already holds the position has considerable majority over there closet rival
- CP have this in rural areas like surrey and yourkshire
example of safe seat
- Canterbury
- fro 1835 to 2017
- rosie duffield 45% of the vote
what happened to the safe seat in canterbury
what are the implications of safe seats
- voters recieve less info there as they pay less attention
- less accountable for actions
- votes are wasted no realistic chance of changing
-not equal value votes
- 2019 - 70.8 per cent of votes were wasted
what is a marginal seat 
- a seat held by the person with a small majority of the vote
- change hands from one party to another frequently
2019 141 marginal seats
what are the implications of marginal seats
- voters recivie much more attention
- votes are more valuable and will influence the result
- more imporant than safe seats
- result in tactical voting - so they can influence the outcome by voting for the party that is more likely to win even though they support the other party
example of marginal seats
- 67 seats were won by a margin of 5% or less in 2019
- 30 fewer than 2017
example of close MP constituency link 
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith made good on an election promise to trigger a by-election and re-stand as an Independent if his party allowed the building of a third runway at Heathrow;
left CP when government allowed it
MP for richmond
Case for retention of FPTP
- easy to understand and produces a clear result
- result known quickly
- accountability of the individual MP is clear
- clear winner
the case against retention of FPTP
- the overall outcome is not proportional - win more seats than the votes they get
- votes are effectively wasted because they have no impact on the outcome in safe seats
- since 1945, winning party securing less than half of the vote, 2015 conservative elected with 36.9% of vote and labour in 2005 got 35.2% of the vote
additional member system
what is AMS 
- hybrid system that combines FPTP with a proportional representation system with a closed party list
- proportion of the seats is awarded through FPTP and the rest is by a regional closed party list
what is a closed party list
- a proportional electoral system where voters vote for a list of candidates providied by the party
- based on the proportion of votes you get the proportion of seats