The Benefits and Drawbacks of Proportional Representation

The change of electoral system of Britain from first-past-the-post to form of proportional representation caused discussions and argues in the whole country. Does new system inspirit and change course to better or lead to weak and indecisive government? Whereas first-past-the-post developed stable majorities in parliament, there are always was a lack of suffer from grave shortcomings, for example majority of population remains unrepresented in government bodies, and a party, which wins less voices in selection than their contestants, can be represented by more seats. Nation is looking forward to see the fairness and progress of parliamentary works of country, which can be motivated by advantageousness of proportional representation. However, there are still many people who think critically about this newness.

The journey to democracy has been strongly driven by electoral systems. These systems provide routes for governments to represent the wills of their people. It provides the platform of legitimacy to the government and in most cases ensures freedom and order within a country. This essay will discuss the major differences between a majoritarian electoral system and proportional electoral system. In addition, it will demonstrate that the use of a majoritarian electoral system in a country would result in a more accountable and representative government.

Britain is considering changing current first past the post voting system (FPTP) to proportional representation (PR). The main reason is that FPTP is “quasi-democratic” voting system under which there is only one majority party ruling the government and it does not represent wishes of all voters as some votes are wasted. Whereas, PR seems to be the best alternative voting system with proportionality of seats in mandatory places, more parties ruling government and etc. Let us look at these two voting systems and analyze whether PR is suitable and alternative change for FPTP and do advantages of PR outweigh disadvantages. First of all, let us start with First Past The Post.

European policy centre. Webpage: http://www.epc.eu/documents/uploads/pub_3544_pathways_to_achieve_a_genuine_fiscal_union.pdf (attended. 25.11.2013.) Bache, Bulmer and George, Politics in the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2011), 255-256. European Commission.

The British parliamentary system of government functions on the principle of straight rule of majority. This allows for quick decision-making processes by a popular majority and elected representatives in the government. (Way 2009) The British Parliamentary system holds a single national election. Policymaking is a task for a united, majority party in the legislature, and to reiterate, the majority party is led and managed by the top executive authority; the Prime Minister. (Way 2009) The formation of an electoral coalition consisting of a national majority allows British elections to be a rapid process.

They observed that Great Britain had a bicameral parliament, and the system seemed to be very successful. They also weighed common sense. They knew that if they had two different chambers, each chamber would be able to “check up” on the other, preventing any abuse of power from taking place. The bicameral Congress was also a result of the Connecticut Compromise, a compromise between The New Jersey and Virginia Plans. The disagreement on those plans had led to many issues within The Articles or Confederation, a document that had been written before the Constitution.

Available from: http://www.idea.int/publications/vt/upload/VT_screenopt_2002.pdf (Accessed 29 Nov 2009) IDEA (2009), Compulsory Voting. Available from: http://www.idea.int/vt/compulsory_voting.cfm (Accessed 18 Nov 2009) Kavanagh, D. (1983), Political Science and Political Behaviour, London: Allen and Unwin Lacroix, J. (2007), ‘A liberal defence of compulsory voting’, Politics, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp 190-195 Lever, A.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lelieveldt, H. and Princen, S. 2011The politics of the European Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Majone, G. 2005.Dilemmas of European integration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Theory and Methods in Political Science. New York: St. Martin's, 1995. 25. Print. 5: Marsh, David, and Gerry Stoker.

The head of government within this system is the Prime Minister, who serves as head of both the executive and legislative branches. Prime Ministers achieve power through their political party, who typically achieve the highest percentage of seats after an election, and are ultimately selected by the Parliament to serve. Essentially, this takes the responsibility of citizens from appointing the Prime Minister by allowing the elected Cabinet from selecting the preferred candidate. The British Parliamentary system & American Presidential: Net Benefits & Negatives Within the framework of the both of these political systems, contrasting differences exist but irrespective of this, we must consider the negatives and positives each system helps create for the respective constituencies they were created to represent.