Making Reference To Leading Alternative Systems, Critically Assess the Case For Electoral Reform In the Uk.

Authors Avatar

Sam Carbery – Introduction to Government

MAKING REFERENCE TO LEADING ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS, CRITICALLY ASSESS THE CASE FOR ELECTORAL REFORM IN THE UK.

Voting and elections are essential for true democracy.  A democracy is a political system were everyone within that system has the right to have a say on how the system is run.  Whilst direct democracy is impractical, representative democracy can be as good.  Instead of having 30,000 people having their say on each issue that comes to their attention, one representative can try his/her best to sum up the feeling of their constituency overall on the matter at hand.  This both saves a lot of time and also means that the representative must work to ensure that he retains the vote of the electorate to retain his/her seat in the representative assembly.

Join now!

The current system of voting representatives for general elections in the UK is the ‘first past the post’ or ‘simple majority’ system.  The UK is split into different geographic locations, called constituencies.  These constituencies have approximately the same population.  As people constantly move, the boundaries of these constituencies have to be altered from time to time to ensure people are receiving fair representation, and in the UK this is done by the Boundary Commision.

One candidate will be elected from each constituency to represent it in the House of Commons.  The winning candidate needs only a majority of the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay