Electoral Systems Essay

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Electoral Systems a) Distinguish between a mandate and a manifesto. (5) A manifesto is a statement that is produced by a political party before an election, stating the policies they intend to implement if they gain power. A mandate is the authority to govern, granted to the winning party by the electorate. A mandate suggests that the government may implement he measures they stated in their manifesto, and that they have the authority to make decisions in unforeseen circumstances (Doctors mandate). A mandate and a manifesto can be distinguished between each other, as a party having a mandate is the result of their manifesto being accepted by the electorate. b) Explain the workings of three electoral systems used in the UK. (10) One electoral system used in the UK is First Past the Post, which is used in the elections to vote in members of Parliament. First Past the Post is a plurality system in which the candidate with the most votes has a plurality and wins; they don’t necessarily have the backing of the majority of the electorate. With this system the country is divided up into 650 constituencies with around 50,000 people in each one. Then, each party can put up a candidate to stand and represent them in that constituency. In this system voting is optional and you only get one vote – for your constituency MP. The candidate with the highest number of votes wins and becomes the MP for that constituency. Then to form a government, a party must have at least 326 seats (over 50%). If no single party has a majority of MPs, then either a coalition or a minority government must be formed. Another electoral system used in the UK is the Supplementary vote, which is used to vote in the London Mayor. Supplementary vote is a majoritarian system in which the winner must get over 50% of the votes to be elected. In this system voters rank the candidates in order of
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