5 November 2013
By Kenny, Jessica, Mariya, Katharina, Saskia, Pia
PoWi
ELECTIONS IN BRITAIN
o General information:
• 650 constituencies
• everyone has ONE vote
• the one with the most votes wins
• every 5 years
• voting age: 18
• get voted: 21
• voted on a voting-Thursday
o free, fair, open, and in secret voted
o way to participate
 general elections : every 4-5 years to elect a member of the house of commons
 local elections: to vote a member of local councils at various levels ( also mayor &
assembly)
 European elections: to vote members of the European parliament
 Other Elections: different kinds of voting. For example secret ballot to choose
trade union officials or wether or not to take industrial action
 By-elections: if a representative resigns or dies during his term
http://www.wahlrecht.de/ausland/uk.html
(pia)
o Types of electorial system
Two categories of electorial system :
1) Unproportional : plurality or majoritarian system:
 Only one elected representative per constituency
 Produces a clear winner
 Parties are not rewarded strictly according to the share of votes they obtain
 Plurality system: Candidate who gets more votes than any other candidate is elected
 Majority system : Candidate who gets more than half of the votes is elected
2) Proportional: proportional representation system
 Several representatives are elected in multi-member constituencies
 Number of seats that a party gets in the legislature reflects its share of the popular vote across
the country
 Not completely proportional because the largest party gets bonuses
 Final result of the election is not immediately apparent after the first count of the votes
Delay before government can be formed
Criteria of a good electorial system:
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5 November 2013
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By Kenny, Jessica, Mariya, Katharina, Saskia, Pia
PoWi
Former Labour Home Secretary set out four general and not very concrete guidelines in 1998:
 A broad proportionality
 A stable government
 An extension of voter choice
 Link between MPs (Members of Parliament) and their constituency
(Saskia)
o
How delegates are elected:
first past the post method is used → candidate with the most votes get the seat in the constituency →
all other votes count for nothing
Advantages and Disadvantages:
Pros
Cons
Government can be formed directly after the
election
Number of the seats doesn't always reflect the
number of votes
Example:
Constituency 1
party 1: 63%
party 2: 37%
Constituency 2
party 1: 70%
party 2: 30 %
→ party 1 gets two seats, party 2 isn't reflected
at all
Single-party governments are formed very often Smaller parties suffer under the system → very
→ provides effective leadership
often they are thinly spread in many areas →
don't have enough votes in one constituency to
win a seat
Closer relationship between his/her
constituency
The system is easy to understand
(Katharina)
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5 November 2013
o
By Kenny, Jessica, Mariya, Katharina, Saskia, Pia
PoWi
Single-party (majority), minority, and coalition governments


Single-Party Gov.:
-FPTP= plurality voting system
-Countries using FPTP likely result in single-party government
-Coalition /minority government unknown in Britain
Mandate & Manifesto:
-Winning party claims mandate
-Party has to implement programme according to manifesto
-Manifesto often has vague guidelines
-Guidelines may turn out to involve extreme measures
Single-party government advantages:
1.Pinpoints political responsibility
•
Voters know which party to praise or blame
•
Coalition partners can’t be blamed
2.Strong stable and durable administrations
•
Effective leadership
•
Gov. can pursue programmes of manifesto
•
Attack problems directly with less delay
3.Direct assurance of leading party
•
No need for deals between politicians
•
Voters directly choose which party is in office
Coalations:
-Abandonment of FPTP would cause increase in coalitions
-Since 1945 no party in Britain had over 50 % of votes = coalitions might become reality
General points about coalitions:
1. In Europe coalition Gov. are common
•
Coalition partners must agree upon decision
2. Coalitions are alien do British
•
Bargains and deals are unknown in politics
•
Known is that winning party is largely able to carry out programme
3. Coalitions may cause instability
•
Not in every country
•
Post-Nazi Germany had coalitions and a stable Gov.
4. Coalitions which didn’t work may overstate instability
•
Gov. often collapsed=ministers often changed
•
Sometimes considerable economic activity still takes place
•
Coalitions don’t always paralyze economy and society
5. Coalitions take time to form
•
In pre-1958 France a coalition took over a month to form
•
1988 Israel experienced heavy bargaining
•
When coalition goes right, voters support parties more
(Kenny)
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5 November 2013
By Kenny, Jessica, Mariya, Katharina, Saskia, Pia
PoWi
o Electoral systems and the party system



In the UK: proportional and mixed systems have been used since the late since 1990s
FPTP: “First-past-the-post”: voting system in which the candidate winning the most votes is elected
PR:” Proportional Representation”: voting system used to elect an assembly/council
Important
It is correct to say that:
• FPTP systems discourage the creation of small parties
 PR systems encourage small parties
 In a legislature under a PR system it is easier for a small party to get represented
 BUT any system that gives small parties an opportunity of success makes it more difficult for them
to govern on its own!
 Countries (like Israel and Irish Republic) that employ some variant of PR have more parties
 In The UK
One of these two major parties (Labour and Conservatives) wins the absolute majority of
parliamentary seats
(Marya)
o Proportional and hybrid UK systems

non-proportional
-recommended for british general elections
-used in London Mayoral elections
-cross between alternative vote and double ballot
 closed list system
proportional
- most common method
-number of votes won by the party determines how many candidates are alected from that party's
list

single transferable vote (STV)
proportional
-used for local
-candidates need to obtain a quota
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5 November 2013

By Kenny, Jessica, Mariya, Katharina, Saskia, Pia
PoWi
additional member system (AMS)
mixed/hybrid
-combines elements of FPTP and single member
-currently used in the elections for the Scottish parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the London
Assembly
(Jessica)
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