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Date Submitted: 10/20/2015 09:31 AM
Assess the Impact of various electoral systems used in the UK.
In recent years there have been an increase in the range of electoral systems used in the UK. As a result both party representation and the nature of government have varied depending on the systems used.
First past the post is used in British general elections. In theory, according to duverger's law it should produce a 2 party system and in the years 1945-1974 it has done so. Between the years 1945-1974 there has been at least an 87.6% share of the votes between Labour and the Conservatives. However due to a rise in third parties, particularly the Liberal Democrats since 1983 a 2 and a half party system has been created and it is clear duverger’s law is no longer accurate. What’s more, nowadays in the 2010 general election, 11.9% of the votes went to other parties showing in terms of votes cast we now have a multi-party system and first past the post is indeed a broken system.
First past the post also tends to produce a strong, stable (usually two-party) government. However the 2012 coalition, despite being abnormal still produces a strong, stable government showing first past the post has a far smaller impact on government than it does on party representation.
The single transferable vote is a proportional system used in Northern Ireland and Scottish local elections. Northern Ireland has a multi-party system. In the 2007 Northern Ireland assembly election the DUP got 36 seats, Sinn Fein 28 seats and the SDLP got 16 seats. This is just one example demonstrating coalition in Northern Ireland as since the good Friday agreement in 1998 Northern Ireland would have “permanent representation” and also “power sharing” which would result in there always being coalitions in Northern Ireland.
The additional member system is a hybrid system, a mixture of first past the post (elects 2/3) and the party list (elects 1/3). It is used in both Scotland and Wales. Scotland is a multiparty system...