What has been the impact of the use of proportional systems in the UK?

Elections for the Scottish Parliament were the first in the United Kingdom to use the additional member system (AMS), which is another method of proportional representation (PR). The Welsh Assembly also uses this form of proportional representation. The disproportionality of the First Past The Post system on its own was clearly shown by the Labour result in the 1999 Scottish Parliament elections, where the party won nearly 73% of the seats with only 39% of the constituency vote. However AMS corrected this with the allocation of top-up members. Hence Labour's final share of the seats worked out at just over 43%. AMS has also helped small parties to gain representation. Indeed, in the Scottish Parliament, the Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party each won one top-up seat in the 1999 elections. AMS is more likely to produce coalition governments, which can encourage a more co-operative style of politics, producing stable and long lasting governments. In the elections of the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales, Labour won the most seats in each body, but failed to secure an overall majority in either. Coalitions now exist in both countries formed by Labour with the Liberal Democrats. One advantage of using this system is that it allows electors to choose a constituency representative from one party and yet support another party to form government.

After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and its endorsement by the people of Northern Ireland on 22 May 1998, power was devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive, on 2 December 1999. The main goal of the agreement was to secure peace within Northern Ireland and allow for better representation of people living within the country. Furthermore, the agreement attempts to establish better relations between Northern Ireland and the U.K. government. However having their own Parliament meant that Northern Ireland was better represented as their views were taken more seriously and if they wanted to change something just for Ireland that the rest of the UK did not agree with then it would be easier for them to do so.

The Party List System (PLS) is used in the UK for European elections. This form of proportional representation is the only potential pure system; therefore it is fair to all parties. The representation of a large number of small parties ensures that there is an emphasis upon negotiation, bargaining and consensus. The introduction of a threshold on the number of votes required means that there may be more coalition governments introduced as they will need more support from nations and constituencies.

The final system of proportional representation in the UK is the Supplementary Vote System (SV). This is used to elect the Mayor of London and a variety of other Mayors around the UK. It is a system close to AV, and is likely to produce a very similar result. As such it has had a very similar impact on the voting systems in the UK. Its essential difference from AV is that it allows the voter to exercise only a second choice, and not a third, a fourth or even a fifth one, and thus avoids weak choices from occasionally illegitimately influencing the result.

In conclusion it would seem that the general impact of proportional representation in the UK would be a positive one as it has created stronger constituency links and creates governments based on what the people really want. The current UK situation would not have happened if all parts of it had continued to use the First Past The Post system. Proportional representation has meant that people's opinions are now being heard and parties are being assigned seats in accordance to the number of votes that they have gained. The argument is now one of whether the rest of the UK (i.e England) should now also reform its electoral system thus making it more representative and fair.

Caroline Hood