Does Britain have a two party system?

Before 1974 in post-war elections the average gap between the two parties' share of the vote was only 4%. Although after 1979, there has been massive swings in support for the parties with Labour gaining a miserable 27.6% in 1983 and the Conservatives gaining only 30.7% of the vote in 1997. Therefore, there has not been a parity of support because for long periods parties have suffered low levels of support.

Until 1974, the two party vote never fell much below 90% but since then the Liberals/Alliance/Lib Dems have increased their share of the vote. In 1983, they gained over 25% of the vote, only 2.2% less than Labour. The two parties certainly do not hold a duopoly of support.

However, votes do not translate precisely into seats. The electoral system favours the two larger parties especially if their votes are concentrated. The two parties between them hold over 90% of the seats in the Commons. Therefore, they do not hold a duopoly of power.

The two parties dominance in the Commons was reflected in most constituencies with the Conservatives and Labour taking first and second place in over 90% of constituencies. However, this does not apply in Scotland and Wales where Labour, the Lib Dems and the Nationalists are the three biggest parties.

Some people might say that Britain has a multi-party system. In Scotland and Wales, the SNP and the Plaid Cymru are the main opposition to Labour with the Liberals coalition partners to Labour. The Tories only hold one seat in Scotland in the Commons. This shows that the two party system does not apply across Britain.

It could be argued that Britain is moving towards a three party system especially if a constitution is changed to a more proportional system. The most compelling evidence for this is the Alliance vote in 1983 when they received over 25% of the vote. If they had received a similar amount of seats they would have been in with a chance of taking over Labour in the Commons who only had 2% more of the vote. However, Britain does not have a proportional system so this was never allowed to happen. Even today, Lib Dems are more popular than Labour in Southern England. On a local scale the Lib Dems control 11% of local authorities with 21% councillors, more than the Conservatives. Despite this, the Lib Dems in reality do not have enough power for Britain to be considered as having a three party system. If the electoral system was more proportional it would be very likely this would change. True levels of support for the Liberals cannot be ascertained from general elections because of the existence of tactical voting.

Many people would argue that Britain has a dominant party system. This idea became popular after the 1992 election when the Conservatives won for an unprecedented fourth time. This was after the incredibly unpopular poll tax and a time of recession and during a period when Labour was modernising it's approach. Add to this fact the Conservatives have ruled (in or out of coalition) for 75 years out of 100 and this idea could almost be credible where it not for the fact that Labour has won the last two elections with massive majorities.

In conclusions, none of these theories seem to apply fully therefore Britain can only truly be defined as having a mixture of systems or a changing party system. There are four characteristics of a changing party system. Each one applies - to a certain extent - to Britain. Party support is more conditional. Opinion polls in 1992 and 1997 showed that only about 20% of voters feel a strong affiliation with just one party whereas in 1964 43% identified strongly with either Labour or Conservative. Support is more fragmented. Support for the two main parties is decreasing, in 1995 Labour and the Conservatives collected 97% of the vote between them whereas in 1992 they only received 76%. Support is more regional. In 1997, the Conservatives won no seats in Scotland and Labour won only three seats in Southern England. This shows the traditional voting behaviour that gave the two parties representation all over Britain and gave elections the uniform swing has disappeared. Support is less equal. In four of the last five elections there has been a double figure lead in votes for the winning party.

Thirty of forty years ago, it would have been easy to classify Britain as a two party system but now with the current system in a state of change it is more difficult. It is further made difficult by anomalies such as the fourth Conservative victory in 1992 that can be confused with more permanent trends in voting behaviour. This leads me to conclude, that we have a changing party system, one that is moving from a two to a three party system. This change has been encourage by devolution to Scotland and Wales and the electoral reform to a more proportional system would complete the transference to a three party system.