TOPIC 3 - ELECTIONS

Question 1

What is an election?

Answer 1

An election is a device by which popular votes can be converted into seats awarded to representatives or parties or used to elect single office-holders or political leaders

Question 2

Give 6 roles of elections

Answer 2

1. Elections are a way in which votes are converted into representation.
2. Elections of a single person have the function of granting LEGITIMACY to a single office-holder.
3. Elections grant a mandate to the elected government which gives it authority to implement electoral commitments (manifesto).
4. They give the electorate the opportunity to call existing governments and representatives to account.
5. They give opportunity for citizens to participate actively in the political process.
6. They enable the electorate to choose between alternative political programmes and prospective leaders

Question 3

What is meant by the term MANDATE?

Answer 3

A mandate is the authority granted to a candidate or party to implement its manifesto commitments. The MANDATE is normally granted by election.

Question 4

What are the 6 main arguments to support the idea that elections enhance democracy?

Answer 4

1. They are a means of granting LEGITIMACY
2. They give a clear MANDATE to government.
3. They are a means of CALLING GOVERNMENT and REPRESENTATIVES TO ACCOUNT.
4. They offer DEMOCRATIC CHOICES to the people.
5. They provide OPPORTUNITIES for PARTICIPATION in politics
6. They EDUCATE and INFORM the people on political issues.

Question 5

What are the 6 main arguments used against the idea that elections enhance democracy?

Answer 5

1. They LIMIT CHOICE because parties produce specific manifestos but people are interested in various ndividual issues which may be covered by different MANIFESTOS.
2. In UK elections may not be far or proportionate.
3. Elections often exclude small parties
4. The mandate that elections grant to governments may give them excessive powers
5. As elections are expensive, elections may help those who have the most money
6. As a result of IT and the internet, it provides the opportunity for foreign states to influence domestic elections with online campaigns and misinformation (see allegations that Russia helped Trump to win the US election).

Question 6

Give 5 distinctions between Elections and Referendums

Answer 6

1. NUMBER OF ISSUES - elections deal with a wide range of issues whereas referendums deal with a single issue.
2. ELECT REPRESENTATIVES - elections are used to elect someone (individual or group) whereas referendums do not elect anyone.
3. REGULAR - elections are held at regular intervals whereas referendums are one-off events that can happen at any time.
4. COMPLEX/SIMPLE - Elections provide a choice and the need to consider a range of issues whereas referendums normally require one answer (such as yes or no)
5. POLITICAL PARTY - Elections concern political parties whereas referendums cut across party differences.

Question 7

In UK we operate “first past the post” system. What does this actually mean?

Answer 7

The candidate who receives the most votes wins. It is not necessary for the winning candidate to get over half of the votes they simply need to get more votes than the other candidates.

Question 8

What is the formal name for the UK’s political system of “first past the post”

Answer 8

It is known as SIMPLE PLURALITY IN SINGLE-MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES.

Question 9

How does “first past the post” or SIMPLE PLURALITY IN SINGLE MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES work in practice

Answer 9

1. The country is divided into 650 constituencies of equal size.
2. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP)
3. Voters chose from a list of candidates nearly all of whom have been nominated by a political party.
4. The candidate with the most votes wins.
5. It is not necessary for the winning candidate to obtain more than half of the votes cast - i.e they win with plurality rather than an absolute majority

Question 10

Does the UK election system result reflect the support for a political party in the UK?

Answer 10

No.

In the 2005 election, Labour won over 50% pf the 650 seats in the House of Commons but only 35% of voters voted for Labour.

In the same election the Conservatives won 36% of the total votes but this converted to 47% of the seats.

So Conservatives won more of the total votes (called the popular vote) than Labour yet they had 3% less MPs appointed to Parliament as compared to Labour.

The Liberal Democrats won 23% of the popular vote yet they only got a rubbish 9% of the seats in Parliament.

Question 11

Why isn’t the distribution of seats n Parliament reflective of how the Uk voters voted?

Answer 11

The UK system favours political parties that have concentrated support such as the labour and Conservative parties. This is because parties with support that is spread out over the UK will rarely get the amounts of votes necessary in any constituency.

In 2015 general election UKIP got a massive £3.8 million votes which was spread out throughout the UK and as a result of this they only actually got one MP into parliament.

In the same election Labour got 9.3 million votes (3 times the votes of UKIP) but rather than get three times as many seats (i.e. 3 seats) they got 232 MPS into Parliament.

Question 12

Why aren’t the smaller political parties better represented in Parliament?

Answer 12

Smaller political parties such as UKIP and the Green Party may be popular throughout the UK but they don’t have enough support in particular constituencies to get enough votes to win.

Question 13

What is known as a SAFE SEAT?

Answer 13

This is where a particular constituency has a high concentration of people who support one political party and as such the MP for that political party will usually win the election in that constituency

Question 14

Why are votes for smaller parties a wasted vote?

Answer 14

Where a voter for a smaller party is voting in a constituency where there concentration of support for one of the larger political parties, the vote for the smaller party wil have litt;e impact upon the result

Question 15

What is known as a STRONG GOVERNMENT

Answer 15

This refers to a government that can rely upon a strong majority of support in Parliament and so is able to carry through its own legilsation and other proposals.

Question 16

What is known as a STABLE GOVERNMENT

Answer 16

This refers to a government that is likely to remain in office without serious crises but lacks the strong majority of a STRONG GOVERNMENT.

Question 17

What is PROPORTIONATE REPRESENTATION?

Answer 17

This is where each vote counts towards the final result and therefore the election result closely follows the popular vote.

Question 18

What is known as the POPULAR VOTE?

Answer 18

In the UK we vote for an MP in our own constituency (such as Birmingham, Northampton South etc). Th popular vote is looking at how the UK voted overall rather than looking at the outcome of each constituency result.

Question 19

Name 4 alternative type of election systems to the “first past the post” system

Answer 19

1. Additional Member System
2. SIngle Transferable Vote
3. Regional List
4. Supplementary Vote

Question 20

Explain how the alternative election system of Additional Member System works

Answer 20

1. A proportion (about 2/3) of the seats are elected by first past the post principle (FPTP)
2. The rest of the seats are elected through a REGIONAL LIST system.
3. In the Regional Lists system, voters choose between parties and not candidates.
4. Seats in the Regional List are awarded according to the proportion of votes for each party which is then adjusted according to the extent to which parties are discriminated against under FPTP

Question 21

Explain how the alternative election system of SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE works

Answer 21

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