MMP: Improving Politcal Diversity and Contrasting FPP

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It is evident that the diversity of New Zealand Parliament has increased both socially and politically since the introduction of the Mixed Member Proportionality (MMP) electoral system in 1996. The first part of this essay will focus on the mechanisms of how MMP significantly improved the political diversity in different areas. I will explain this by examining the key differences between MMP and its predecessor, First-Past-the-Post (FPP). The second part of this essay will explore the reasons why social diversity and minority representation in parliament has improved under MMP, with reference to the interesting effect of ‘macrocontagion’.

Prior to 1996, elections in New Zealand were held under the plurality (or FPP) system. Under this electoral system, the candidate with the most percentage votes wins the seat in that electorate and the remaining votes for all other candidates are simply discounted. Thus, supporters of smaller parties gradually lost their incentive to vote for candidates from these parties, in order to avoid casting “wasted votes”. Therefore, FPP ultimately assisted the formation of a ‘two-party’ government with very limited political diversity. MMP, however, brings a new era of active participation from small parties in Parliament. Introduction of the crucial and decisive party vote under MMP means parliamentary seats are now allocated in proportion to the percentage of party votes each party receives, thus ensuring every vote is counted towards the determination of parliament composition. As a result, supports given to smaller parties suddenly multiplied. This is simply because voters are now empowered to bring these parties into parliament by cast their votes directly to the parties. With enough party v...

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...al Election Party List . These actions will inevitably put pressure on larger parties so they are generally compelled to follow suit in order to retain support from women and minority voters. Effectively, more women and candidates from minority backgrounds are nominated to the lists by larger parties and are subsequently elected into the parliament15, hence the achievement of social diversity under MMP.

In conclusion, MMP has completely redefined the process of government formation. With the flourish of small parties, a diverse spectrum of political opinions is frequently voiced in Parliament. Due to its entailment for parties to compete for every single vote, MMP also terminated the history of under-representation of women, ethnic minorities and special interest groups. It is fair to say, an epoch marked by social and political parliamentary diversity has began.

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