Section A: Political Issues in the UKStudy Theme 1D: Electoral Systems, Voting and

Political Attitudes.

A selection of essays5_AMS Essays

The Additional Member System gives voters more choice and better representation than does First Past The Post. Discuss.

• Explain the importance of choice, and representation. • Yes AMS does give voters more choice and better representation, 2 votes and

more proportional• Choice – 2 votes BUT some people don’t understand how the system works and

think it is your second preference.• Choice – Multi-member constituency, can go to a representative from a party that

you voted for. BUT regional MSPs are seen to be slightly weaker than Constituency MSPs. Two tier system.

• Representation – More proportional % of seats more equal to % of votes. BUT AMS should discourage majority government and encourage cooperative style government, currently this is not the case. In fact Westminster with the FPTP system has a coalition and therefore more cooperative style of government. – More views represented therefore more representative.

• Representation – More likely to have women, not a winner takes all system, so parties are prepared to put women on the party list vote for regional seats. Women are better represented in the SP at 35%, whilst at Westminster only 22% of MPs are women. BUT when we look at the ethnic minority vote SP only just gained minority rep. At 1.5% (compared to population should be 4%) While Westminster has increased to 4%.

Critically examine the view that the Additional Member System (AMS) leads to better representation than First Past the Post (FPTP).

• Explain what representation is and why it is important• Yes AMS does lead to better representation – more proportional, better representation of

women BUT ethnic minorities are poorly represented in the Scottish Parliament.

• More proportional - % of seats more equal to % of votes – More views represented therefore more representative. In SP there is a range of parties represented SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Greens etc. BUT FPTP has a clear relationship between a geographic area and an MP – whose role it is to fight for issues that are important to that area, so the constituents have their views represented in Parliament.

• Women - More likely to have women, not a winner takes all system, so parties are prepared to put women on the party list vote for regional seats. Women are better represented in the SP at 35%, whilst at Westminster only 22% of MPs are women. BUT when we look at the ethnic minority vote SP only just gained minority rep. At 1.5% (compared to population should be 4%) While Westminster has increased to 4%.

• Range of political parties and coalition gov. – The 2011 election is the first election that has returned a majority gov. All previous governments have been coalitions or a minority government which required a cooperative style of government. This means that compromise is necessary and hopefully then more of the electorates viewpoint will be represented. BUT AMS should discourage majority government and encourage cooperative style government, currently this is not the case. In fact Westminster with the FPTP system has a coalition and therefore more cooperative style of government. – More views represented therefore more representative.

AMS is not a truly proportional system. Discuss.• Explain what it means by a proportional system. Then explain, AMS has a proportional

element through the Party List Vote for Regional MSPs but is not fully or directly proportional, because of the FPTP element.

• More proportional - % of seats more equal to % of votes – More views represented therefore more representative. In SP there is a range of parties represented SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Greens etc. BUT FPTP has a clear relationship between a geographic area and an MP – whose role it is to fight for issues that are important to that area, so the constituents have their views represented in Parliament.

• Women - More likely to have women, not a winner takes all system, so parties are prepared to put women on the party list vote for regional seats. Women are better represented in the SP at 35%, whilst at Westminster only 22% of MPs are women. BUT when we look at the ethnic minority vote SP only just gained minority rep. At 1.5% (compared to population should be 4%) While Westminster has increased to 4%.

• FPTP element for constituency MSPs. Winner takes all. Benefits larger parties like Scottish Labour. You can see from the decrease in Labour at Local Council level the impact of a truly proportional system.

• The system was adopted to be proportional and encourage a cooperative style of government. But in fact we have a majority government in power for the first time and a reduction in the smaller parties represented.

• The Additional Member System gives voters more choice and better representation than does First Past The Post. Discuss.

• Critically examine the view that the Additional Member System (AMS) leads to better representation than First Past the Post (FPTP).

• AMS is not a truly proportional system. Discuss.