The Impact of the Use of Proportional Systems in the UK
There are three main proportional representation systems that have
been developed that try to ensure that party’s seats are earned more
proportionally. The use of the Single Transferable Vote, List and
Additional Member systems has changed UK politics, effecting
representation, governance, policy and parties alike.
The Single Transferable Vote system, which is very complex, is used in
Northern Ireland for all but the UK election. It has helped widen
representation and improve democracy. It has long worked with on the
whole beneficial results in the Republic of Ireland (as we have seen),
a country which had previously shared at least a part of the British
parliamentary tradition. The Additional Members System (AMS) came
about in 1998 as so did the Scottish Parliament due to the 1998
referendum which led to the Devolution Act. In 1999 and 2003 the
conservatives received 18 seats through the List vote under AMS,
giving them a much fairer representation of their support nationally
in Scotland. The AMS in the welsh assembly has enabled more choice and
consequently 50% of the welsh assembly’s members are female, the first
democratically elected legislature to be able to say that. These
results in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have reduced the
probability of a single party gaining complete control of the
legislative organizations which use these proportionally
representative systems, therefore avoiding the single party dominance
or even electoral dictatorship linked with first past the post system.
Labour won 28 seats in the Welsh assembly in 1999, 3 short of an
overall majority, meaning they had to form a coalition government with
the Lib Dems, much to the Lib Dems satisfaction, as they support AMS
for this very reason – it means a much less dominant party and so a
government for the people and not the party. In Scotland a very
similar case occurred with again falling short of a majority and again
forming a coalition government with the lid Dems.
The use of AMS & the resultant coalitions in Scotland & in Wales