Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Voting Systems
- First Past the Post (FPTP)
- Used in;
- House of Commons
- England and Wales local
government
- Constituences are roughly equal size
- A constituency system, there is
currently 650 Constituency's in the
UK
- Voters select a single candidate,
reflecting a 'one person, one vote'
system
- The winning candidate only
needs to achieve a plurality of
votes
- Disadvantages
- Electoral Fairness
- All votes count
- Majority governement
- Accountable government
- Consensus political culture
- Advantages
- Clear electoral cjoice
- Constituency represemtation
- Mandate democracy
- Strong government
- Stable government
- Additional Member System (AMS)
- Used in;
- Scottish Paraliment
- Welsh Assembly
- Greater London Assembly
- Proportion of seats filled
by FPTP, rest filled with
'closed' party list
- Broadly proportional in terms of outcome
- Allows to make a wider more considered choice
- Advantages
- Balances the need for
constituency
representation, against the
need for fairness
- It allows voters to make a
wider and more considered
choice
- Keeps alive the possibility of a
single-party government
- Disadvantages
- Creates confusion, of two
different classes of
representatives
- Reduces likelihood of high levels of proportionality
- Constituency representation will be less
effective than FPTP
- Alternative vote (AV)/ Supplementry Vote (SV)
- Winning candidate must
have a minimum of 50% of all
the votes cast
- With AV, electors vote preferentially, in SV electors vote for a
first preference vote, and a second 'supplementary vote'
- Votes are according to preference,
if no candidate reaches 50% then
the bottom candidates votes get
redistributed (SV) or the bottom
candidate gets dropped out until
there is a 50% winning candidate
- Advantages
- SV/AV ensures that fewer votesare'wasted'
- As a candidate must have
50%,parties will start to cover a
broader range of views, instead of a
fixed narrow view
- Disadvantages
- The outcome of a election, may
be determined by the support of
small, extremist (possibly) party
support
- Candidates may only win from
redistribution, making them the least
unpopular candidate, and not the most
popular
- Single Transferable Vote (STV)
- Used in;
- Northern Irish Assembly
- Scottish and Irish local government
- Quota system, uses
(Total number of
votes)/(Number of
seats+1) +1
- Parties are able to put up as many candidates as there are seats to fill
- Electors vote preferentially by ranking candidates in order
- Disadvantages
- A strong and Stable single-party government is unlikely
- Multimember constituencies may be divisive and so
competition between party members will be
encouraged
- Advantages
- Capable of
achieving high
proportional
outcomes
- The availability of several
members in a
constituency, mean that
people have a choice on
who to take their
grievances to
- Regional Party list
- Used in the UK
for European
Parliament
- There is a large number of
multimember constituences
- Disadvantages
- Parties can become more
powerful. as they decide where
candidates are placed on the party
list
- Links between a representative and
his/her constituency may be
weaken/broken
- Small parties may
lead to a weak and
unstable government
- Parties must compile a list of
candidates to place before the
electors
- This can be a closed list,
where the electors choose a
party, and candidates get put
forward as they appear on the
list
- This can be a open list system, where the electors
vote for a party, and then a candidate no matter
where they are on the list
- Advantages
- This system is the only 'pure'
proportional representation system
- The system tends to promote unity
- The system makes it easier for
women, and minority candidates to be
elected