Electoral Systems

-FPTP has been used in UK elections for centuries, but has been reformed over the years

-It falls into the plurality category of voting systems, meaning that it is likely to produce a two-party system

-It is use for UK general elections

-Usually it will return a single party with a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, so it will usually create a strong single-party government

-In an FPTP system, simply put: whoever gains the most votes wins

-SImplicity: it is a simple system to use for the voters

-It typically produces stable, single-party governments

-It gives a clear MP-constituency link, providing effective local representation

-It keeps extremist parties out of influence

-Lack of voter choice because of the resultig two-party system

-Unequal vote value  because of unequal constituency sizes

-No majority is needed- only a plurality is needed

-Disproportionate results because winning parties are ypically over-represented

-An increased number of 'safe seats'

-There can be failures to create strong, single party governments e.g. the coalition government between 2010-15 between the Conservatives & the Liberal Democrats

-Two ballots are used: one for a local representative, and one for a regional representative where voters will vote for a party instead of an individual

-The constituency vote works in an FPTP way, wehereas the regional vote works more proportionally

-Each party running for election draws up a list of candidates from each region

-The D'Hont formula is used to calculate who gets the first seat((no. of regional votes gained for a given party)/(no. of seats a given party has gained + 1))

-The first seat is allocated to the party with the highest number resulting from the equation

-This process is repeated until all of the seats in a region are allocated to a party. The party gives the seats it has won to the correct number of candidates from the top of the list downwards

-AMS is used in Scottish Parliament & Welsh Assembly elections

-It produces a proportional result, which reduces 'wasted' votes and ensures more parites have a chance of gaining representation

-Split-ticket voting: voters have more choice with two votes to cast, they can vote for different parties which encourages more parties to run

-It produces a government with broad popularity, because it order to have a single-party government with AMS, they must have broad popularity over a country rather than just in conentrated pockets

-Greater representation, because all areas are represented by a constituency & regional representative, it is more likely representatives will represent the beliefs of their voters

-More complicated: although the process of voting is simple, what  happens next is not, this can put voters off as they may feel their vote will be mathematically manipulated, and therefore voter turnout will be reduced

-An unlikely single-party government, meaning coalitions are more likely, which means governments may be weaker and find it more difficult to pass policies they promised

-The first round with FPTP means it also comes with all the disadvantages of FPTP

-Different types of representatives can cause tension & confusion for the voters and on accountability

-Party control: parties control the order of their lists of candidates, voters only have the choice to support the list or not, which arguably gives the party more control

-The only UK voting system that allows for ordinal voting(meaning that voters can list candidates in order of preference)

-It is used for the Northern Irish Assembly

-The voter lists candidates in order of preference

-The 'Droop quota' is used((total no. of valid votes in a region)/(no. of seats available in a region + 1))+1

-Any votes that a candidate recieved over the number required from the quota are then redistributed amongst the second preferences

-If there are seats remaining and no one else reaches the quota, the candidate with the fewest votes in eliminated and their votes are redistributed

-This process continues until all available seats are filled

-Proportional result, it delivers a result shown to have the closest correlation between the perecntage of votes cast and the percentage of seats gained

-Voters have a great degree of choice not only between parties, but also within parties

-Greater representation: multi-member constituencies mean a voter is more likely to have a representative who shares their ideology & beliefs

-More complicated, like AMS the process of voting is simple but what happens afterwards, again voters may feel like their vote will be manipulated and this may reduce turnout

-Unlikely single-party government: in Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreemenr means that there always has to be a coalition in government, and the proportional nature of STV contributes to this and may be weaker than a single-party government

-Constituency links: because the regions in Ireland are larger, representatives are less likely to have a strong link to their constituents

-Voters are given a ballot paper with all of the candidates listed and two columns: one for the voter's first choice, and one for their second choice

-All of the first choice ballots are counted: if anyone wins a majority, they are elected

-If no one has a majority, all but the top two candidates are eliminated in one go. The second preferences for the remaining candidates are redistributed

-With other candidates eliminated, only two candidates and votes redistributed, one candidate must have a majority- this candidate wins

-SV ensures that the winning candidate has a clear majority of the votes while still keeping extremist parties out of influence

-Voters have more choice than in FPTP, knowing that they can vote for a smaller party with their first preference if they wish but still using their second preference to ensure that their vote is not wasted

-It is also a very simple system, unlike proportional systems such as AMS or STV, it is relatively easy to understand in how votes are counted but also how they are cast

-Two-party dominance: the system means that third parties are unlikely to do well and the result isn't proportional

-A false majority as the winning candidate only needs to gain the majority of the 'valid vote', meaning the votes that actually count.

-Wasted votes: as with FPTP, there are a large number of 'wasted' votes, which have little or no impact on the outcome of the election