Electoral Reform

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Jo Muter 6E2

Electoral Reform

(a) Proportional representation covers a wide range of electoral systems in which seats in parliament are more or less in proportional to the total amount of votes won. The first past the post system which is used in the UK’s general elections is not proportional, the number of votes cast are not in a strong correlation to the number of seats won in the House of Commons, as the winner obtains a seat in the House of Commons if they receive more votes than their nearest rival. It is a majoritarian system. Proportional systems include the Party List system, Single Transferable Vote (STV) and the Additional Member system.  In the extract it refers to proportional representation of favouring the centre-left group of New Labour and the Liberal Democrats whilst still allowing other groups which are smaller, like “old Labour and Thatcherite Conservatives” to win seats because the system is proportional.

New Labour enlisted the help of Lord Jenkins to research into proportional systems but after warmly receiving the research it was later “shelved.”

Britain has used forms of proportional representation in elections for devolutions in Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland, and also in the London mayoral elections, but has never replaced the First-Past-the-Post system in British general elections.  

(b) Proportional representation is a way of making all votes count. In the First-Past-The-Post system that is in place in British general elections many of the votes cast by the electoral are effectively wasted. If a voter does not choose to vote for the winning candidate or party their vote is wasted as their opinion, for practical purposes, is void. By introducing a PR system all votes would be of an equal value. Opponents of PR would argue that PR creates a government that is not practical in modern day society and has not been proved a reasonable alternative.  

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In the case for PR, the FPTP system distorts the results of the election. Generally it exaggerates the performance of the two major parties (Labour and Conservatives), twisting the results, so a majority government is reached. For example in the 1983 general election, the Liberal Democrats received 25.4% of the total votes cast and received only 23 seats, whereas Labour only received 2.2% more votes but got 209 seats in parliament. That’s over nine times the amount of seats for only 2% more of the total vote. Majoritarian systems under represent smaller parties particularly the Liberal Democrats who are discriminated ...

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