The Disproportionality of the United Kingdom's Electoral System undermines the British state's claim to have representative government"

        Much debate centres around which electoral system is best at producing a government that truly represents the public. There are two broad types of electoral system

First Past The Post:        The candidate with the most votes wins regardless of whether he or she has a majority of the total votes or not. (British system)

Why is this seen to be unrepresentative?

• Under the FPTP system a government may have a full majority of seats, therefore exercising the full power of government, with just a small majority of the popular vote.  Parties will often have a larger or smaller number of seats compared to their share of votes. This is due to the fact that it is possible for every MP to win his seat with a minority of his constituent’s votes and that some constituencies have more voters than others
• This phenomenon seems to favour the larger parties and punishes whose level of electoral support drops below 30% of the vote. In 1997 the Conservatives won 17.5% of the Scottish vote but won no seats in Scotland at all.
• In increasing numbers voters are staying away from the poles. It has been argued that this apathy is caused by the lack of identity between the two major parties. People do not feel that either of the parties represents their interests. Other smaller parties that perhaps do, are discriminated against by a FPTP system that encourages a two party system

Proportional Representation:        Representatives are allocated in approximate proportion of votes that they receive. In this way the party should have share of the seats that is reflected by their share of the vote. There are many different types of PR and it is widely held that this system is more representative.

Additional Members System:        Used in Germany, this system elects two types of MPs. Some are elected by gaining a simple majority and others selected from party lists, the number is proportionally based on the performance of their party in the election.

The Single transferable Vote:        This system is used in Ireland and gives the voter the opportunity to rank the candidates in order preference. Candidates need to obtain a certain number of votes to be elected (this depends on the number of candidates and the number of seats) Once they achieve this quota, the extra votes can be transferred to the second and lower preference candidates thus eliminating the wasted votes.            

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Politics UK, 4th Edition – Bill Jones, Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Moran and Philip Norton – Longman 2001

• British Elections & Party Review Vol. 9 – Justin Fisher, Philip Cowley, David Denver, Andrew Russel – Frank Cass Publishers 1999

• Introduction to British Politics 3rd Edition – John Dearlove, Peter Saunders, - Polity Press 2000