Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

ELECTIONS AND ELECTORAL SYSTEMS

-

Elections – a method of filling an office or post through choices made by a
designated body of people: the electorate
Central to democracy in the UK
Based on universal adult suffrage, one person, one vote, the secret ballot and
competition between candidates and parties
Main link between the government and the people
Voting is the most common form of political participation
Since 2000, the electoral process has been regulated by the Electoral
Commission
Types of Elections







General – a full parliamentary election in which all the seats in the House of
Commons come up for re-election
...
I
Assemblies
...
Include
elections to the Greater London Assembly and London Mayor
...

By-Elections – when a HoC seat becomes vacant to the death or resignation of
an MP
...

Functions of Elections











They peacefully transfer power from one government to the next
Accountability – they provide a means by which citizens can hold individual
representatives and government of the day accountable for their actions and
their conduct in office
Legitimisation – they play a role in giving the government a mandate
...
Citizens
‘consent’ to being governed
...

Representation – Elections create a link between politicians and their
constituencies
...
This occurs because elections make politicians accountable
...

Participation – the key act of political participation for most citizens
Influence over policy – in theory, elections allow citizens to have their policy
preferences heard, but in reality, have limited scope to influence decisions
...

Elite Recruitment – political parties nominate candidates for election, provide
them with campaign resources – and expect loyalty from them if they become
MPs

Forms of Representation




-

Trusteeship – act on behalf of others, using their superior knowledge,
education or experience
...
Could lead to
representatives acting in their own interests
...
Must not vote on the basis of their own
conscience
...
Therefore, a representative government should be a microcosm of
society e
...
women and ethnic minorities
...

There are problems with this theory, as a microcosm would include its
weaknesses e
...
apathetic, ill-informed
Difficult to do e
...
all-women shortlists were declared to be illegal
...
e
...
It may not be perfect
...

First-Past-the-Post
The voter puts a cross in the box of their preferred candidate
...

Used for the HoC and local government in England and Wales
...
Deviation from proportionality of 23% in
2010
...
6% of votes, but 0
...

Conversely, the SNP got 4
...
6% in HoC
...

Cons got 37% of national vote, but 51% of seats in HoC -> a large winner’s
bonus
...

Systematic biases – large parties benefit at the expense of small parties
because larger parties are more likely to gain plurality support; parties which
are geographically concentrated in one area are more likely to do better
...
g
...
Means what happens in
elections is determined by what happens in marginal seats
...

Landslide effect – FPTP tends to produce a winner’s bonus which means
parties can win landslides on moderate support
...
g
...
5%
...
53% of all
votes cast in 2010 were for a losing party
...
8% fewer votes

“FPTP crushes out multi-party politics” – Paddy Ashdown after Lib Dem 2015
Election disaster
On the basis of the 2015 G
...
, FPTP is totally undemocratic, undermining the Tories’
legitimacy to govern, mandate to make decisions
...
Parliament’s job to represent the electorate is completely unfulfilled
through FPTP, making it a totally failed electoral system
...
A majoritarian system
...
A competition of
‘who is the least unpopular’
Favours minority parties – Lib Dems would have won 32 more seats in 2010
had AV been used
...

Implications of AMS:
More proportional than FPTP as the regional PR irons out the constituency
FPTP disproportionality
...


Single Transferable Vote (STV)





-

A proportional system, that gives multi-member constituencies
...

You rank your preferences, and the number of votes needed for one MP to fill
a seat in a constituency is calculated using the Droop Quota
...

Very good voter choice – you rank you preferences
Easy to use
Takes days to deliver election results

Supplementary Vote (SV)




-

Majoritarian, but not proportional, persay
Used to elect UK police and crime commissioners
Voters are limited to a first and second choice
...
Need to
get 50% therefore majoritarian
Implications of SV:
Probably lead to coalitions if used for Westminster elections
Voter choice isn’t great, but better than FPTP
Leads to tactical voting
Retains a single-member constituency

Party List




-

Proportional system
Used to vote UK members to the EU Parliament
Parties provide a list of candidates for that party in an arranged order
...

The %age of votes for a party = %of seats in legislature
Implications of Party List:
Often creates instability, because getting a majority is very unlikely and hence
lots of coalitions, and then difficult to get legislation through
...
E
...
– 37%
331 – 51%
256 – 39%

Labour – 30%
232 – 36%
200 – 31%

% of seats in House of Commons

SNP – 5%
56 – 9%
31 – 5%

UKIP – 13%
1 – 0
...
2%
52 – 8%

Impacts of the new electoral systems
 POSITIVES
- Greater Proportionality – the number of seats won by parties more closely
matches their share of the vote
...
Lab have lost many seats to the SNP in devolved elections
...
6% of
the seats
- Minority and Coalition Governments – only one of the elections using the new
systems has delivered a majority – SNP in 2011 in the Scottish Parliament
...
Scotland
has seen two Lab-Lib coalitions and one SNP minority government
...

The Good Friday Agreement states that in N
...

- Split-Ticket Voting – voting behaviour has become more complex
...
Es? – in the Swedish General Election of
2014, where a party list system is used, turnout was 85
...
complex
...
The Police and
Crime Commissioner Elections have also reported high numbers of spoilt
ballots
...

Low turnout – turnout in elections using the new systems has often been low
...


Attitudes to Electoral Reform
 LABOUR
- In 1980s, received a surge of support for reform
- After 1992 defeat, the party commissioned Lord Plant to investigate
alternative voting systems in conjunction with new constitutional
arrangements
...
The bulk of MPs would now be voted in using AV
...


Reform under Brown
-

Brown published a Green Paper, ‘The Governance of Britain’ in 2007 which
included a review of voting systems
...


 CONSERVATIVES
- Tories have not historically been supportive of constitutional or electoral
reform
- Reject reform as other systems would give weak and unstable coalitions
...


-

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Have had the longest support for electoral reform to PR since the 1800s
...


AV Referendum in May 2011






To have referendum on the voting system was wanted by the Libs and part of
the coalition agreement
...
Tories were seen to be attacking Clegg because of his unpopularity
...

Turnout was 42%
68% No vote
...

We know immediately after an election who has won
...
The Grand Coalition – a government including representatives of the two main
political parties such as the one led by Merkel in 2005
2
...
g Austria or
Italy
3
...
g
...

Sometimes, as coalitions take a few days to form, instability in the economic
markets can arise


-

Advantages of Coalitions
Greater checks and balances on government
Avoids elective dictatorship
Greater emphasis on compromise and consensus
Greater representation of voters


-

Disadvantages of Coalitions
No-one votes for a coalition
Unstable governments due to lack of a single party government
Controversial issues are avoided so as to protect government security
No decisive government in times of crisis
Gives too much power to third parties, who may be the king makers

Direct and Indirect Democracy

-

Direct Democracy
Based on the Athenian model
Government by the people
Purest form of democracy
Views of the people are directly translated into policy
Modern examples include town hall meetings and initiatives in the US
...


-

Referendums – Problems thereof

-


-

-

Topic
Governments are seen only to allow a referendum when they are certain of the
outcome they desire
...

Clement Atlee said referendums are ‘A tool of dictators and demagogues
...
The final question was ‘Should Scotland be an
independent country?’
Although the Electoral Commission was granted the authority to comment on
the possible bias of the questions, the government often has the final say
...



-

Funding
At the time of the 1975 referendum on EEC, the ‘yes’ camp outspent ‘no’ by 3
to 1
Under the political parties, elections and referendums act, referendums in the
UK were to be state funded, each receiving £600,000 public grant
...



-

-

Turnout
The paradox of referendums is that although they said to encourage direct,
political participation and enhancing legitimacy, turnout at UK referendums is
often very low
...
e
...

Turnout at the eleven referendums from 1973-2011 averaged 54
...


Would Britain benefit from a greater use of referendums?










YES
Enhance democracy -> encouraging
political participation, banish
apathy, engage votes – higher
turnout
Could increase turnouts – Scottish
referendum was 85%
Provide a simple clear answer to a
question in a way that general
elections cannot
...
g
...
g
...

Can be useful for overcoming
divisions in government
The case for more referendums as a
means of participation has become
greater as party membership and
turnout have declined
...

Although there is no great demand for the use of initiatives as used in some
US states and some European countries, public support for more referendums
is increasing
...

Should the UK allow recalls of elected officials?







A recall election is a device that allows citizens to unseat an elected official
before the end of their term in office
Recalls are only permitted where there is evidence of corruption, negligence or
incompetence
...

The 2010 G
...
manifestos of all 3 main parties proposed introducing the
power of recall, but little progress has been made
...




---