The voting system in the UK 1'

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The voting system in the UK 1.
This map of the UK shows each of the 646
constituencies that are represented by a single
MP in the House of Commons. Each one contains
roughly 67, 000 constituents. The results shown
are for the General Election held in 2000.
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There are several different systems of voting for
a government. The one used for the UK government
is called the First past the Post system.
FPTP is the voting system used for the election
of MPs to 'seats' in the UK Parliament. It is a
system in which the 'winner takes all' and
usually gives a clear majority both at
constituency and national level.
This means that a candidate in a constituency
only needs one more vote than the nearest rival
to win the seat. Similarly, political parties
only need to win one more seat in the House of
Commons to have a majority. The party that gets
the largest amount of MPs becomes the governing
party. The second placed party becomes the
official Opposition.
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Advantages of FPTP
It is a very simple system for the voters to
understand they dont need to think about some
of the complexities that arise with other system,
as seen in the elections to the Scottish
Parliament in 2007 when over 100,000 votes were
spoiled because they didnt understand the voting
system correctly.
Generally the results of elections using FPTP can
be calculated quickly. When necessary, this makes
the transfer of power from one party to another
much easier. The 1997 and 2001 elections were
clear evidence of this.
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Advantages of FPTP
There is very little chance of extremist parties
being elected (who only get relatively small
amounts of votes) to Parliament under FPTP
because they are unlikely to gain enough votes in
any one constituency.
Each constituency elects one representative. The
link between voter and representative is very
clear so people know who to go to with their
problems.
This system often leads to a strong government
with a clear majority, so they have enough MPs to
make new laws, eg in the 2005 General Election,
the Labour Party won with an overall majority of
66 seats. Therefore they had the advantage of
having enough MPs to get Labour policies through
the House of Commons without relying on the votes
of other parties. They can represent the views of
Labour voters because they do not have to
compromise their views to get the support of
other parties.
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Disadvantages of FPTP
The main criticism of FPTP is that the number of
votes cast for a party in general elections is
not accurately reflected in the number of seats
won. An example of this was the 1997 election
when the Conservatives gained 18 of the vote in
Scotland but not one seat. This is mirrored at
constituency level, where the winning candidate
may have received only one third of the votes
cast, with the rest of the votes being split
between several other candidates. Indeed, a
government may be elected on a minority vote, as
happened in February 1974 when Labour won the
general election on the number of seats gained
but the Conservatives had a larger share of the
vote across the country.
Smaller parties are not fairly treated under
FPTP. Although they may have a reasonable a
number of voters supporting them, they dont have
enough in any one constituency. They may come
second or third in several areas but under FPTP
that gives no MPs. This was shown in the 1983
general election when the Liberal/SDP Alliance
won 25.4 of the vote and gained 23 seats while
the Labour Party won 27.7 of the vote and gained
209 seats.
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Disadvantages of FPTP
FPTP also encourages tactical voting. This means
voting for a party, other than your preferred
party, to prevent another party from being
elected. An example of this would be when a
Labour supporter in a marginal Liberal/
Conservative seat votes Liberal Democrat in order
to keep the Conservatives from winning.
Encourages apathy as some people believe their
vote is wasted in constituencies with a large
majority (safe seats). Eg in a safe Labour seat,
voters from other parties may think that it is
pointless voting as they have no chance of
winning. Similarly some Labour voters may not
vote as they think Labour will win anyway.
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Disadvantages of FPTP
A government with a large majority of seats in
the Commons can ignore the views of the smaller
parties even though millions of people voted for
these parties. (This is sometimes called the
'tyranny of the majority')
Most candidates win a constituency with less than
half the votes due to the fact that there are
usually several parties trying to get elected in
each constituency.
Most governments (even those that win in a
landslide) win elections with less than half of
all the votes cast. For example, in 1997 Labour
won a huge majority of seats 167 more seats than
all of the other parties put together, and yet
they only got 40.7 of the votes cast.
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The voting system in the UK 2.
Proportional Representation Proportional
Representation (PR) is the name given to many
different types of voting systems that try to
share out seats in proportion to votes
received. PR is a 'group name', it is not the
name of a particular voting system. In the exam
you might, however, be expected to answer a
question on PR, giving specific examples from
systems you have studied. The Scottish Parliament
voting system is a form of PR so you may use that
as an example. It is called Additional Member
System (AMS). All PR systems though are an
attempt to avoid the unfairness of the FPTP
system seen below.
You can see why smaller parties want PR to be
used and larger parties are happy with FPTP.
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Electing an MSP to the Scottish Parliament An
MSP is a Member of the Scottish Parliament. The
Scottish Parliament was set up in 1999 after a
'Yes' vote in a referendum (a vote by the whole
electorate on whether to accept or reject a
proposal). Certain parts of the government, like
health, education, transport, justice and local
government, are now devolved, and the Scottish
Parliament deals with them without referring to
the UK Parliament at Westminster. Other matters,
like defence, foreign affairs, immigration
(asylum), social security (benefits) and most
taxation, are reserved, which means they are
still dealt with by the UK Parliament.
9TH OCTOBER 2004.MSPs AND CHAMBER GUESTS SING
AULD LANG SYNE DURING THE ROYAL OPENING OF THE
NEW SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT AT HOLYROOD, EDINBURGH
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The 129 MSPs are elected by a combination of FPTP
and Proportional Representation. This is a
proportional representation (PR) system, which
means there is a clear link between the number of
votes a party receives and the number of seats it
gets. The simplest PR system is called the Party
List. Parties draw up a list of candidates and
people vote for a party, not a candidate. The
total votes for each party is converted to a
percentage and this is used to decide how many of
the party list are elected, e.g. if a party gets
40 of the votes, the first 40 of names on their
list are elected.
The Additional Member System combines First Past
the Post with the Party List system. Why? Well,
it is a way of keeping the link between
constituency and representative (which does not
extist in the Party List system!) while giving
smaller parties a fairer distribution of seats.
This is important in Scotland where the Labour
Party has more support than the other parties and
was likely to always form the Scottish Executive.
Although good for the Labour Party, it was
thought this might not be good for democracy.
Labour would have no strong opposition in the
Scottish Parliament and, if no other party had a
chance of forming the Scottish Executive, their
supporters might feel their vote was 'wasted'.
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The 2007 election to the Scottish Parliament show
that the overall use of the AMS system gives a
fairer result than FPTP.
You can see that the Constituencies, which still
use FPTP show some inequalities ie SNP got a
larger percentage of the vote than Labour yet
ended up with fewer seats.
But the Regions use the AMS and this helps to
make the overall result fairer.
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The results of the election were as follows.
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Advantages of AMS Fairer result because the seats
gained are more in line with the percentage of
votes cast.
Women and ethnic minorities are more likely to be
elected because the parties put forward their
list of candidates in order of preference.
The Scottish Parliament has a coalition
government which means the parties have to
co-operate with each other, so there is agreement
about the policies introduced.
Voters have more choice because smaller parties
put up more candidates. Voters can also choose
independents or single issue groups. Generally
voters can feel that their vote is less likely to
be wasted.
Keeps clear link between MSP and constituents
while giving a more representative distribution
of seats in the Scottish Parliament.
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Disadvantages of AMS
The voting system can be more confusing for the
voters since they are now asked to vote for a
Constituency MSP and a Regional MSP compared to
the straightforward FPTP one X in a box.
Confusion between the role of Constituency and
Regional List MSPs. For example, which MSP does a
constituent approach for help?
Coalitions often break down and lots of smaller
parties in a parliament can lead to disagreement
and difficulties getting decisions passed.
Coalitions are a weaker form of government.
Decisions often have to be compromises between
the views of two different parties.
Small parties can have a greater impact on
decisions than their percentage of the votes
should allow.
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Hints and Tips   Some people get confused about
the difference between First Past the Post and
AMS (a form of proportional representation, or
PR). The main difference is what each system
considers to be good representation. For First
Past the Post, good representation is a close
link between constituency and representative, and
a clear winning party able to deliver policies on
behalf of its supporters. For PR, good
representation is a close link between number of
votes and number of representatives, so that
there are more parties in parliament and a wider
representation of political views.
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Advantages and disadvantages of PR The following
are general points about PR. However, if you are
asked a PR question in the exam, you may need to
illustrate your answer (using these points) with
voting systems you have studied.
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Advantages of PR systems include . PR systems
usually give a fairer share of seats to votes
than FPTP. . There is often a wider range of
views represented in Parliament because
governments are often made up of more than just
one party (coalition governments). Disadvantages
of PR systems include . PR systems can cause a
'hung parliament' in which a small party holds
the balance of power between the two biggest
parties. Small parties in this position are
sometimes called 'king makers' because they hold
the deciding vote in parliament meaning they have
the final say in government decisions. . PR is
more likely to create a coalition government.
While this can be an advantage for the reason
mentioned above, in some circumstances it can be
a disadvantage. Coalition governments can be slow
to act. They may have weak policies because the
different parties in the coalition must agree
before a decision or a policy can be made.
Coalition governments can fall out and break up
resulting in frequent elections. Frequent
elections are not good because governments do not
have the chance to make many changes or look at
longterm issues. . Finally, because MPs or MSPs
are chosen by their party, the link between the
constituency and the MP is weaker compared with
the FPTP system where people vote for a
particular MP.