In British political history, third parties have rarely won significant support, and a first-past-the-post voting system, tending to produce a clear result between the two dominant parties, has enjoyed broad support. This has stifled any serious discussion of Proportional Representation.
In recent years, however, the emergence of significant support for the Liberal Democrats, and of several smaller parties with varying levels of support, has created a number of electoral anomalies; small parties are generally under represented in a first-past-the-post system, while fragmentation of the vote means that the winning party has usually failed to achieve a majority of votes nationally, or even in individual constituencies.
The current first-past-the-post voting system has therefore attracted a growing number of critics in recent years. Unsurprisingly, this has been predominantly but not exclusively, from the Liberal democrats and the smaller parties. Proportional representation has been introduced for European elections and Scottish and Welsh Assembly elections, but the indecisive outcome of the May 2010 General Election has stimulated renewed interest in PR for the House of Commons at Westminster.
There are two principle systems of proportional representation practiced in different democracies around the world: the Alternative Vote, and the Single Transferable Vote. The former has attracted growing support in the Labour Party. Why is this so? How would AV work in British elections, and what are its advantages and disadvantages and likely effects?
How Alternative Voting Works
The Alternative Vote system of PR works as follows:
- Single member constituencies remain.
- Each voter votes for as many candidates as he or she wishes to, placing them in a numerical order of preference.
- If any candidate wins an overall majority of the first preference votes cast at the first count he or she is elected. If not, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and their 2nd preference votes are allocated to the other candidates.
- This continues until one candidate achieves over 50% of the vote.
Theoretical Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternative Voting
The advantages of the Alternative Voting system are:
- The direct link between voters and constituency MPs remains.
- The winning candidate is supported by a majority of voters.
- A clear parliamentary majority for one party is the most likely outcome.
The disadvantages of the Aternative Voting system are:
- Minority parties are still likely to be under-represented.
- The system may encourage or compel voters to cast lower preference for candidates of whom they know little or nothing.
Alternative Voting Experience in Australia
The only major country using an Alternative Voting electoral system of this nature at the national level Is Australia, where it was introduced for the House of representatives in 1918.
Australian experience generally bears out the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of the system, in that:
- One or other of the two major parties has achieved a clear cut victory in all but one election in the last half century.
- Minority parties have difficulty in winning seats.
- Nevertheless, minority parties gain influence, as the main parties seek to win their supporters' alternative preference votes by promoting policies favoured by the minority parties.
- It has been necessary to distribute preference votes to achieve a result in over half the constituencies in recent elections, but the distribution has actually altered only around 6% of constituency results in recent years. This could, however, have affected the national result on some occasions.
- Calculations of the order in which to place preferences become so complicated that the parties produce voting templates for their supporters, indicating the order in which votes should be cast.
- Party discipline is reinforced, arguably at the expense of members' responsiveness to their constituents.
British Labour Party Support for an Alternative Vote System
As a beneficiary of the current first-past-the-post system of voting, the British Labour Party has in the past opposed any form of proportional representation. However, in recent years one faction of the party has seen advantage reforming the British electoral system by introducing the Alternative Vote. They appear to believe that single party governments would still be the norm, but would enable them to benefit from the votes of an anti Conservative element in other parties' support, with the possibility of excluding the conservatives from power on a continuing basis.
However, the AV system appears to offer little to the Liberal Democrats and other minority parties. In order to achieve their support, some Labour politicians are therefore proposing a modified system, AV Plus, which would achieve more representation of smaller parties.
More Information About Voting Systems for the UK And Other Constitutional Reforms
Advantages and disadvantages of other voting systems.
How the Single Transferable Voting system, which is the closest to pure Proportional Representation,works.
Constitutional issues facing the new Cameron/Clegg coalition.
Sources
Ace The Electoral Knowledge Network - Australia: The Alternative Vote System
Tony Allen - In 2004 I began my "fourth career" as a freelance writer. In my first career, after training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, I ...
