Section A - Electoral Systems
- Created by: AlevelWarrior
- Created on: 04-09-19 11:32
View mindmap
- Section A: Electoral Systems
- Functions of an Electoral System
- Elected a member of parliament to represent locally. It also allows people to feel involved and have a voice.
- Allows people to deliver their verdict on the current party. Increases democracy as the people can express their feelings.
- Elections grant a mandate to the new government and give them authority and legality to rule. Known as Electoral Mandate.
- Opportunities for citizens to be actively involved in politics and secures their consent - the heart of democracy.
- Allows the people to freely choose their political mandate.
- Allows the masses to choose between political leaders, but also over the potential cabinet.
- Key Features of an Electoral System
- Held in regular intervals. (5 years)
- Have a variety of options.
- Lead to political change (legally binding)
- Supposed to produce a stable, majority government.
- Involves the people and increases democracy and turnouts.
- Grants an electoral mandate, giving the winning party the authority to make political change.
- First Past the Post.
- Advantages.
- FPTP usually produces a clear winner, as the winning party needs a 50% majority. This allows for a strong government with power comes with legitimacy and authority.
- FPTP winners have a clear mandate and can govern decisively. There has rarely been an election where they have been contested. (Feb 1974 when Conservatives received more of the votes but less of the seats.
- There's a simple process of voting, which allows for a clear vote of the people. Removes room for misinterpretation.
- Provides a clear opposition, allowing for debates over policies, bills and laws.
- Does not allow for extremist parties to rise rapidly to prominence.
- Disadvantages
- Parties can only win seats if they have support concentrated in one area. Smaller groups, e.g Green Party struggle to win seats because their support is spread out between constituencies
- Favours a two-party system. America has had this for over 80 years and the UK is drifting towards it. There are no prizes for the 3rd party. (Liberal Democrats getting 23% of the vote in 2010 by a minority of seats.)
- Most MP's don't win with a majority but rather 30-40% of the votes. Turnouts are low, democracy is decreased.
- 'Wasted' votes are lost as certain areas have a 'safe seat' meaning the dominant party will always win.
- The winning party rarely has a majority vote. E.g Conservative party win in 2015 with 36.9% of the vote.
- Tactical voting occurs where candidates will vote for someone they don't want out rather then who they want.
- Does not always reflect what a community wants. Small wins are equal to a majority win. E.g Hampstead and Kilburn 2010 elections won with 42 votes.
- Consists of 650 constituencies that vote on their MP's through a ballot voting system.
- 2015 - Conservative Majority Government.
- 36.9% Win.
- 2017 - Conservative and Democratic Union Party Coalition Government.
- 42.4% Win with 0.9% DUP seats.
- Advantages.
- Additional Member System (AMS)
- Advantages
- It is broadly proportional
- Each voter has a directly accountable single constituency representative.
- Each voter has at least one effective, meaningful vote.
- It allows a voter to express their support for a candidate without going against their party.
- Disadvantages
- Representatives are accountable to the party leadership rather than the voters.
- Two different types of representatives creates animosity between the two. In Wales & Scotland, AM's and MSP members are seen as 'second class' members.
- Leads to 'overhung seats' meaning that a party has received more constituency seats than entitled to according to the proportional vote.
- Can become complicated as people could be confused with what to do with two votes.
- AMS is used to elect the Scottish Parliament, The National Assembly for Wales and the London Assembly.
- Voters are given two votes; one for an individual candidate and one for a party. Individual candidates are elected to single-member constituencies using FPTP.
- Additional members under the second vote are elected proportionally to a larger region which usually takes two constituencies.
- 2015 - Wales Coalition.
- 2016 - Scottish Parliament Majority.
- Advantages
- Single Transferable Vote
- Voters rank candidates 1st choice to last choice. with freedom to rank as many candidates as possible.
- Elected winners depends on the droop quota.
- 2017 - Northern Irish Assembly
- 5 Parties shared seats: DUP 28.1%, Sinn Fein 27.9%, SDLP 11.9%, Ulster Unionist Party 12.9% amd Alliance Party 9.1%.
- Advantages
- More proportional than AMS, as it removes safe seats and tactical voting. In addition, was voted by the Electoral Reform Society as the best alternative to FPTP.
- Reflects the public's interests.
- Much harder for two-party dominance - the powers are within the electorates hands.
- Fewer votes are wasted, votes are transferred if their preferred candidate isn't chosen.
- Better for smaller and emerging parties.
- Disadvantages
- Could lead to very large constituencies
- Logistically its extremely difficult, takes a long time to count votes. Its better for smaller countries and councils however implementing in a large country would prove challenging.
- People have a difficulty of understanding the votes, they appear to 'donkey vote'
- Ballot papers can become confusing in large constituencies
- Often leads to coalitions, result in breakdowns of decision making e.g suspension of the Northern Irish Assembly since Jan 2017 over abortion and many other policies.
- Supplementary Vote
- System is used for electing mayors and police and crime commissioners in cities across the UK.
- 2000 - TBD London Mayoral Elections
- May 2015 Sixteen city councils have been elected.
- Everybody gets two votes, a first choice and a last choice, simple ballot voting. First choices are counted and if a 50% majority is achieved they win, if not their second votes are transferred to the second choice.
- Advantages
- Allows people to have a backup option to vote on.
- Stops people from winning on a low vote share, only once has a London mayoral election ended with the winner getting less than 50%
- Encourages strategic voting amongst the populace.
- There are fewer wasted votes and its extremely simple compared to FPTP.
- Disadvantages
- Voting majority in the first round is not required.
- Many people chose not to vote on their second vote as they do not have one.
- Favours the two-party dominant system, as smaller parties are eliminated in the first round.
- High number of wasted voters.
- Voters may use their second vote to destroy the chances of their opposition being elected, so they vote randomly.
- Referendums
- Functions of an Electoral System
Comments
No comments have yet been made