First-past-the-post

First-past-the-post

1. This is the main majortarian voting system used in the UK. It is also known as the single-member plurality system. It is undoubtedly the most important electoral system used in the UK, as it is the system used for elections to the House of Commons and therefore it serves to form UK governments. Hence it is known as the Westminster electoral system.

   • The features of FPTP
     • It is a constituency system. Currently there are 646 parliamentary constituencies in the UK. Constituencies are rougly equal size, which is ensured by reviews by the Electoral Commission.
       • Voters select a single candidate, and do so by marking an 'X' on the ballot paper. This reflects the principle of 'one man one vote'.
         • Each constituency returns a single candidate. This is often seen as the 'winner-takes-all' effect.
           • However, there are still a small number of multimember consitituencies in local governments.
   • The implications of FPTP
     • Disproportionality
       • FPTP fails to establish a reliable link between the proportion of votes won by parties and the proportion of seats they gain. This happens because the system is primarily concerned with the election of single members, not with the representation of political parties.
         • An example of this is that it is possible with FPTP for the 'wrong' party to win an election. This is what happened in 1951, when the Conservatives formed a majority government but won fewer votes than Labour.
     • Systematic bias
       • There are two kinds of bias. Firstly, size of party. FPTP allows large parties to benefit at the expense of small parties. This is due to the 'winner-takes-all' effect and the discouragement of voters to vote for smaller parties as they are unlikely to win seats, which wastes the votes of the voter. Secondly, distribution of support. Parties whose support is geographically concentrated do better than ones with evenly distributed support
         • The Labour and Conservative parties have traditionally been 'over represented' by FPTP because they have been both large parties and have tended to have geographically concentrated support thanks to the class basis of their voters. The Lib Dems, by contrast, suffer the double disadvantage that they are smaller than Labour and Conservative parties and also have less class-based and more geographically evenly spread support.
           • The improving position of the Lib Dems can be explained by the ruthless targeting of seaqts in election campaigns and the growing tendency towards tactical voting.
     • Two-party system
       • FPTP is a tendency for politics to be dominated by two 'major' parties. In other words, only two parties have sufficient parliamentary support to have a chance of winning general elections and forming governments.
         • Since the WW1, the UK has had a two-party system, dominated by Labour and Conservative parties. Although the proportion of votes gained by these parties has tended to fall, from over 95% in the early 1950s to 65% in 2010
           • Even in 2010, 85% of MPs belonged to either the Labour or Conservative parties.
             • Labour and Coservatives each have 'heartlands' in which most seats are 'safe' seats. This means a seat or constituency that rarely changes hands and is consistently won by the same party. For example: Exeter Labour MP Ben Bradshaw.
               • The minority of seats, so-called 'marginal' seats which are seats or constituencies with a small majority, which is therefore 'winnable' by more than one party.
     • Single-party government
       • The most important consequence of a two-party system is that the larger of the 'major' parties usualloy wins sufficient support to be able to govern alone. In the UK, this means that it usually wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons. The other 'major' party forms the opposition and therefore acts as a kind of 'government in waiting'.
         • Not since 1935 has a party gained a majority of votes in the UK general election. However only twice since then, in February 1974 and May 2010, has a party failed to gain a majority of seats in the House of Commons, resulting in a coalition.
     • Lanslide effect
       • Not only does FPTP usually give the largest party majority control of the House of Commons, but it also tends to produce a 'winners bonus'. This occurs as relatively small shifts in votes can lead to dramatic changes in the seats the parties gain. One of the consequences of this is that parties can win 'lanslide' victories on the basis of relatively modest electoral support
         • This is a tendency that has become increasingly pronuced from the 1980s onwards through the decline in combined Labour-Conservative electoral support.
           • In 1983, the Conservatives won a 143-seat majority up from 44 seats in 1979, despite the fact that Conservative support fell by 0.5%.
   • Plurality: The largest number out of a collection of numbers; a 'simple' majority, nort necessarily an 'absolute' majoirty.

2. FPTP is a majortarian system. This is an electoral system that tends to 'over-represent' larger parties and usually results in single-party majority governments.