PR vs 'first past the post'

Proportional representation (PR), sometimes referred to as full representation, is a category of electoral formula aimed at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies). PR is a democratic principle rather than an electoral system in itself. (wikipedia) An MP once said that spending just five minutes with a constituent is reason enough not to have a democracy. An MP also ordered a sun bed on his expenses from those very same voters' taxes. We would be hypocrites if we said we wouldn't have done ...  Read the complete review

Traditionally it has always been the Liberal party in its various guises that have been in favour of a proportional representative (PR) system of voting which is understandable as under the traditional first past the post system (FPTP) they have had little chance of ever gaining power having to rely on a hung parliament (no one party with an overall majority) to stand any chance of getting power and having a say in the government of the country. It is no real surprise that the other two parties do not entertain thoughts of changing as the current system serves them well as ultimately both parties know that they will be in power at some point in time even if they may have ...  Read the complete review

Inherent in the question, is a glaring problem, which is that there are so many forms of PR, which one do you mean? No one is suggesting that Britain ought to have the Additional Member system of voting, as in Germany, for example. Even if you assume that the type of PR used is some variation of the theme of AV top up, as suggested by the Committee set to investigate, one is still not really sure which type would be the preferred option, as the report was very controversial and appears to have been sleved for the time being. One other factor which needs to be considered, is that with a new House Of Lords around the corner (It seems a terribly long corner I know!)we ...  Read the complete review

Before you talk about whether PR is better or worst than FPTP you have to talk about all the different kinds of PR. The PR systems used are Alternative vote (AV), List, Single Transferable Vote (STV) and Additional Member System (AMS). Then you break each of them up individually and discuss their positive and negative features. Firstly List PR, this is a good means of democracy as you can vote for a political party or a single candidate, choose more than one party or reorder the party list. This system is used in Israel and Namibia. With List PR you proportionally get the number of seat with the votes you won, so if you won 40% of votes and the party had 200 ...  Read the complete review

I won't explain the systems here, they have been explained before by many people. I am in favour of First Past the Post over Proportional Representation. Let me explain why: Proportional representation is a great idea, in theory. A bit like communism. However, in my opinion, neither of them work. With PR you get many parties and the people are truly represented. A great idea surely? Almost all PR governments have been coalitions. So basically with proportional representation, you get governments that represent the people, but are too divided or weak to actually get much done. There are exceptions i know, but everything has an exception. ...  Read the complete review