Voting Systems

Question 1

What is the introduction to this essay?

Answer 1

• The electoral system that will be analysed will be First Past the Post (FPTP), which will be analysed to find out if the system provides fair representation.

Question 2

What is the first point?

Answer 2

• FPTP usually produces majority governments.

Question 3

Why is the FPTP system good for majority governments?

Answer 3

• This is because the system encourages mundane politics and it tends to avoid the un-democraticness of a joint coalition party.

Question 4

Why is majority governments a good thing?

Answer 4

• This is a good thing as it allows the government party that has been elected to deliver on what they promised in their manifesto and won’t be delayed on having to negotiate with the other parties to come to a deal.
• It also allows voters’ views to be supported as the policies and rulings they wanted would be supported and passed through quickly.
• The voters would be happier, unlike the coalition government in which the people might not have voted for the party and still got into government, which is again very un-democratic.

Question 5

What is the example to support majority governments?

Answer 5

• For example, since 1945 the FPTP system has always produced a one-party system and in 2019 Boris Johnson’s government won with a majority of 162 seats which then should allow for delivering what the public wants and what the party promised.

Question 6

What is the analysis of majority governments?

Answer 6

• This evidence shows that the FPTP system which produces majority governments is effective as governments are able to get things done quicker,
• while the voters are satisfied as their preferred party is in government and is not tied with an opposite party that the people didn’t want, this increases democracy.

Question 7

What is one disadvantage of FPTP?

Answer 7

• FPTP is at a disadvantage as it has limited proportionality.

Question 8

Why is limited proportionality a disadvantage for FPTP?

Answer 8

• This is because the percentage of votes that parties may receive is not accurate to the number of seats they receive in Parliament.
• This can then provide unfair representation as votes are wasted due to the ‘winner takes all’ approach where the party that gets the majority gets lots of seats.
• This means that parties that had similar votes wouldn’t get as many seats as the party that won, meaning further unfair representation.

Question 9

What is evidence to support this disadvantage for FPTP?

Answer 9

• For example, the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election, won 56% of the seats, but less than half of the votes.
• This means that the rest of the votes are unaccounted for, meaning that there is very unfair representation.

Question 10

What is the analysis of this evidence for the disadvantage of FPTP?

Answer 10

• This shows that the FPTP electoral system does not provide fair representation
• as the number of seats does not account for the number of votes,
• meaning that half the country could feel unrepresented by its current government.

Question 11

What is the second disadvantage of FPTP?

Answer 11

• FPTP usually produces a two-party system which means it’s harder for smaller parties to gain representation.

Question 12

Why are two-party systems a disadvantage for FPTP? (1)

Answer 12

• This is because FPTP is more likely to reward parties with stronger regional support such as Labour in the North of England ad the Conservatives in the South, meaning that smaller parties like the Liberal Democrats which are spread throughout the region would get fewer votes.

Question 13

What is example 1 for two-party systems?

Answer 13

• For example, almost every general election in the UK since 1945 has been between the Conservatives and the Labour Party with the deciding vote left up to the voters that choose the least bad party.

Question 14

What is example 2 for two-party systems?

Answer 14

• In Scotland specifically, they only won 7% of the seats with 4% of the vote as they have stronger support throughout Scotland, in contrast to the Lib Dems gathering 2% of the seats and 12% of the vote due to the even spread of Lib Dems throughout Scotland

Question 15

What is the analysis for these two examples of two-party systems being a disadvantage to FPTP?

Answer 15

• This provides very unfair representation as voters cannot get their favoured party in parliament as they’d have to vote for the least worst party
• meaning voter views cannot get through, adding to the undemocratic feeling, which then weakens the electoral system as a whole.

Question 16

What is the final argument for FPTP system?

Answer 16

• FPTP system encourages greater accountability as it creates a strong link between the voters and the representatives.

Question 17

Why is greater accountability a reason for FPTP?

Answer 17

• This is because voters can choose their candidates to represent them in their single constituency, instead of multiple and only one can win.
• The voters know exactly who their representative is after the election instead of waiting and it to be unknown.
• The representative is directly linked to the voters and can be voted out at the next election if they are not performing well enough.

Question 18

What is the evidence for greater accountability?

Answer 18

• For example, Wendy Chaimberlandwon North East Fife for the Liberal Democrats in 2019 with a majority of 1,300 votes over the SNP candidate Stephen Gethins.

Question 19

What does the evidence for greater accountability show (analysis) ?

Answer 19

• This evidence shows that since she has now been elected with the majority landslide, it means voters are fairly represented with a strong link to their candidate.

Question 20

What does the evidence for greater accountability finally show (2)?

Answer 20

• This also shows the FPTP system does encourage fair representation and greater accountability as
• candidates can be voted in with an easily understandable system,
• and the candidates can get the views of their constituents to Parliament.

Question 21

What is the conclusion of the essay?

Answer 21

• Overall, the FPTP system provides fair representation for voters as they can vote people in and kick people out if they are not being represented fairly.
• With the FPTP system the votes will represent the government and they will get the party they want the majority government and not a coalition government which undermines democracy and the point of the elections as a whole.

Question 22

Why are two-party systems a disadvantage for FPTP? (2)

Answer 22

• This means that voters would realise that there is no chance that the party they would vote for wins so they would give their vote to the next best party.
• This provides unfair representation as the parties are not representing the people’s views as the people have to choose the least bad party in order to not waste their vote.