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Arguements for and against forms of proportional representation
Arguements for and against forms of proportional representation
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Out of all potential replacements for the existing FPTP (First Past the Post) system, Proportional Representation by far the most widely touted. Used in more than half of countries worldwide, it has been advocated by many groups as a replacement for the existing system on the basis of its ability to accurately represent the wishes of the constituency.
There are several different types of Proportional Representation, with varying levels of proportionality, vote thresholds, and regional representation. These are: Mixed-Member Proportional, Party-List Proportional, Open List Proportional and Single Transferable Vote (which is sometimes counted separately). Using the 2015 UK parliamentary elections as an example, we can analyze the several main
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Electors select both a local candidate for the constituency, and select members of a national party, which determines the overall composition of the legislature.
Total Vote = Constituency Seats Won + Party List Vote (distributed according to how many seats left until proportionality, and subject to the cutoff)
In Germany, a 5% threshold is enacted meaning that a party must gain over 5% of the vote in order to be counted in the Party List Vote. This threshold is down to 3% if a party gains over 3 direct constituency seats. It is only after constituency seats are awarded that the party list is used to calculate how many additional seats are given to each party to ensure proportionality.
Usually, half of the total seats are constituency seats. Thus, we assume that the UK has 325 constituency seats and 325 additional seats.
Example: UK 2015 election with German MMP
UK-PR-GER
Smaller regional parties (Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, DUP, and the SDLP) are only in parliament because of their ability to gain regional
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Electors select a single national party, which determines the overall composition of the legislature. Israel uses a closed-list system, where voters only vote for parties and do not determine the order of the election of candidates. A 3.25% threshold is enacted for parties wishing to enter the legislature.
Example: UK 2015 election with Israeli PR
UK-PR-ISR.png
Smaller regional parties (Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, DUP, and the SDLP) are unable to gain representation, as they fall below the 3.25% cutoff
The large parties (Conservatives, Labor, UKIP, Liberal Democrats, SNP and the Green Party) are above the 5% cutoff, meaning they gain votes in proportion to their popular vote.
Open Party-List Proportional (Brazil)
Similar to above, Open Party-List Proportional, or just PR, is a much simpler voting system which takes into account just national results to allocate seats. Electors select a single national party, which determines the overall composition of the legislature. However, voters can also vote for individual candidates within a party, determining the order of selection of candidates. In Brazil, there is no threshold for entering the legislature - any party can enter should it muster sufficient
In this essay I will argue that British General Elections should be conducted using a system of Proportional Representation. First, I will argue that the system would be more democratic as every vote that is cast would be represented and this ...
Under this system, the MP for each constituency is the one who gained the most votes. Many claim that this wastes votes, and is unfair. For example, in the 2010 General Election, the Conservative Party gained 36% of the vote and gained 47% of the seats in the House of Commons. Simply put, this demonstrates a lack of democracy- with the representatives of the people not being those chosen by the electorate. Yet, it can also be argued that FPTP is a healthy aspect of the UK system, as it ensures that extremist parties are unlikely to gain power, and it tends to create strong, majority governments.
The authors describe some of the advantages of a MMP system: “Mixed electoral systems provide fairly proportional outcomes, maintain the geographic link between constituents and members, provide for greater choice, and allow the opportunity for smaller parties to represented in Parliament” (p. 11). This system works better than the current FPTP or plurality system, because it allows citizen’s a second opportunity to have a voice. This is important because it would allow our minority groups to have a greater political influence. As mentioned earlier, in the current system all votes for candidates who lost, were insignificant to the election outcome. The authors explain: “Only those votes that go to the eventual winner count towards electing a representative, which may discourage people from voting or promote disaffection with the system” (p. 3). Alternatively, the MMP system allows citizen’s a second opportunity to elect party members in order to proportionally represent the popular
...ment plays an important role in determining the relationship between its politicians and electorates. It also “[calculates] how votes are translated into seats of political power... it... also affects the party system, political culture, the formation of government and the structure of the executive” (Trac 5). Most importantly, candidates in an SMP system can be elected with minimal amounts of public support as they do not require a majority of the votes. To be elected to the legislature in the PR system, a candidate must have “at least 3% of the party vote across the province” (Ontario Citizens' Assembly 3). In contrast to the SMP system, the PR system better represents the views of the citizens, supports a stable and effective government, and is a simple yet practical voting system. It successfully caters to the needs of the voters, unlike the traditional system.
The issue of electoral reform has become more important than ever in Canada in recent years as the general public has come to realize that our current first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, formally known as single-member plurality (SMP) has produced majority governments of questionable legitimacy. Of the major democracies in the world, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only countries that still have SMP systems in place. Interestingly enough, there has been enormous political tension and division in the last few years in these countries, culminating with the election results in Canada and the USA this year that polarized both countries. In the last year we have seen unprecedented progress towards electoral reform, with PEI establishing an electoral reform commissioner and New Brunswick appointing a nine-member Commission on Legislative Democracy in December 2003 to the groundbreaking decision by the British Columbia Citizen’s Assembly on October 24, 2004 that the province will have a referendum on May 17, 2005 to decide whether or not they will switch to a system of proportional representation. This kind of reform is only expected to continue, as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty decided to take BC’s lead and form an independent Citizen’s Assembly with the power to determine whether or not Ontario will have a referendum regarding a change to a more proportional system. There is still much work to do however, and we will examine the inherent problems with Canada’s first-past-the-post system and why we should move into the 21st century and switch to a form of proportional representation.
The second consideration is that whilst voters are offered a great deal of choice at constituency level, the vast majority of these parties are far too small to have any great impact on the political system and can therefore be considered irrelevant on a national scale and have only regional significance.
Perhaps the greatest threat that FPTP poses to democracy is the appalling discrepancy between election results and the actual percentage of votes cast for each political party. In the FPTP syste...
The single-member district election system is the most common and best-known electoral system currently in use in America. It is used to elect the U.S. House Representatives, as well as many state and local legislatures. Under single member district systems, an area is divided into a number of geographically defined voting districts, each represented by a single elected official. Voters can only vote for their district’s representative, with the individual receiving the most votes winning election. This method of electing representatives is better than any alternative solution in various ways. Four compelling reasons to support the single-member district election system include the fact that single-member districts give each voter a single, easily identifiable district member; the way single-member district voting helps protect against overreaching party influence; that single-member districts ensure geographic representation; and finally, that single-member districts are the best way to maximize representatives’ accountability.
...s vote for a party instead for an individual, and when the votes are tallied for the region the regional representative seats for that region are divided among the parties in proportion to the share of the vote that each party received.
Britain is considering changing current first past the post voting system (FPTP) to proportional representation (PR). The main reason is that FPTP is “quasi-democratic” voting system under which there is only one majority party ruling the government and it does not represent wishes of all voters as some votes are wasted. Whereas, PR seems to be the best alternative voting system with proportionality of seats in mandatory places, more parties ruling government and etc. Let us look at these two voting systems and analyze whether PR is suitable and alternative change for FPTP and do advantages of PR outweigh disadvantages.
...d I believe that proportional representation would be the most effective system to further the goals of democracy. If we use the single member plurality system we automatically ignore and exclude the voice of the people who didn’t win the election in a first past the post method. On the other hand in the proportional system rather than all seats being given to the party with the most votes every party gets the seats equal to the amount of votes they were able to obtain. This would allow all the people who voted to have their ‘”voice” represented in the government even though the party they voted for did not end up winning the election. This would encourage and engage many citizens to become involved in the political process; who otherwise would be discourage to vote at the fact that even if they vote, if their party loses their vote would be useless.
Smaller nations and most parliaments follow unicameralism which consists of a single chamber. For example, New Zealand, Nordic countries such as Denmark, Iceland and Finland are unicamerals as well. [Arter 1984, 16-22 and Damgard 1992 ](Patterson, S. C., & Mughan, A. (1999) 3). This is most likely due to the fact that balance of political conflict is prevalent in smaller countries. Thus, it’s relatively more efficient to solve political issues thereby choosing unicameralism. (Mahler, Gregory S. 2008) Examples of unicameralism can be found in China, South Korea, Greece, Israel, Kenya and New Zealand. (Danziger, J. N. (1996)) (163)
According to Alan Siaroff’s (2003) definition to the “half” party, this party can be a “hinge” party or a “wing” party. A “hinge” party is playing a critical role between two major party, whereas a “wing” party is often cooperate with one major party. Hence, Alan Siaroff’s (2003) explained that the National should be treated as a “wing” party because the continuous cooperation with the Liberal. According to the statistical analysis of the seats shared by the Coalition partners from 1922-2013 (Linda,C, and Geoff, C, 2015), in the House of Representatives, it is clear that approximately 30% the Coalition’s seats were shared by the Nationals, especially from 1922 -1987, although the percentage decreased from 1990 to 2013, it can be seem that the Liberal was highly relied upon the Nationals in order to won as a majority, because the Nationals helped the Coalition won over 50% of the seats for 18 times in 23 times elections, another 5 times were already succeeded by the Liberal themselves, but the Coalition won around 60% to 70% of seats when combine with the Nationals.
In a dominant- party system, a single party wins approximately 60 percent or more of the seats in legislature and two or more other parties usually win less than 40 percent of the seat. Opposition parties in dominant-party system are free to contest elections. The dominant parties have to compete for votes to maintain its power or to gain power. This democratic competition imposes a check and balance on the government of the day, promotes transparency and accountability and ensures that service delivery to the people are prioritized or it will be given the boot.
In a UK general election is not uncommon for this to attract attention from overseas, while in a local one that would typically not be the case. In general elections the MPs are made up of the Prime minster and the senior ministers, while in local they do not form any sort of government and are not entitled to have a seat on