In the 2024 UK general election the Labour Party won 34% of votes and 63% of the seats making this year’s general election the most disproportionate on record. The significant disparity between seats won and votes gained yet again poses the question whether First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) is the best electoral system for a country which claims to be a liberal democracy?
Smaller parties are worst affected by FPTP as it naturally develops into a two-party system over time. Despite winning 14% of votes, Reform UK only gained 1% of available seats in Parliament, whereas the Liberal Democrats were able to win 11% of parliamentary seats with just 12% of the vote. For some, these statistics are a relief, as FPTP appears to limit extremism and produce strong majority governments which tend to occupy the centre ground. This demonstrates how it’s a ‘please-all system’ that promotes compromise and political efficiency. For others, the skewed results from this year’s general election clearly indicate that our system is undemocratic and in desperate need of reform.
Germany is widely regarded as being a highly democratic country, scoring 93/100 on the Freedom House democracy index, suggesting that they might be the country to imitate when it comes to holding elections. They use the same voting system as the Welsh and Scottish devolved assemblies, known in the UK as the Additional Members System (AMS).
AMS combines elements of FPTP and Proportional Representation (PR) with voters having two votes; one for a local representative, and one for a national representative. Freedom House regards this as being “fair and impartial”. The Bundestag (Germany’s parliament) is the 2nd largest in the world. It’s multiparty system and use of ‘balance seats’ ensures a wide variety of opinions and interests are represented within parliament.
PR is often criticised for resulting in coalition governments since no one party is able to win an overall majority. Critics of PR argue that coalitions are ineffective when it comes to generating and passing legislation quickly and decisively. However, this has not been the case in Germany, where the current centre-left coalition government – comprising the Social Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens – has proved to be highly effective in passing legislation.
However, PR still has its flaws. It can be argued that the lack of majoritarianism in the German system has allowed the far-right Alternative for Germany party to increase its seats in the Bundestag. It’s important to note that the argument that PR promotes political extremism is contested by groups such as the Electoral Reform Society. Although we are naturally inclined to condemn extremism, if people are voting for these parties, shouldn’t we accept the will of the people and embrace the plurality of views within society, rather than limiting it through our electoral systems?
The most common electoral system used in Europe is Party-list proportional representation. There are different types of Party-list, but the general idea is that voters vote for a party they support, and the party generates a candidate. Although this puts more power in the hands of the party, this system best reflects voter preference as the proportion of votes a party gets translates directly into seats won. Furthermore, countries that use Party-list PR tend to score highly on the Freedom Index. For example, Finland, with a score of 100/100, Belgium with 96/100, and Sweden with 99/100, suggest a positive correlation between highly democratic countries and those that use PR.
Lastly, in 2024 it would be rude to discuss elections without mentioning the USA. The USA elects its Presidents in a FPFP system, in a very similar manner to the UK. However, much like the UK, the results are skewed.
In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton after polling almost three million fewer votes, suggesting that ‘winner-takes-all’ majoritarian systems are not effective when it comes to reflecting voter preference – an essential function of any election for many. Both the USA and UK also suffer from forms of ‘invisible rigging’, where interested parties are able to manipulate the election without breaking any laws. The most common form of ‘invisible rigging’ in the United States is gerrymandering, where the government alters constituency borders to encompass voters likely to vote for their party. Is the ‘leader of the free world’ holding free and fair elections?
So, does the UK desperately need electoral reform, and if so, which country should we imitate? With 40 out of 43 European countries employing a form of PR, the UK seems to be behind the times in terms of electoral reform and is paying the price with the distorted results of the 2024 general election. However, the classic ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ argument still somewhat holds up in the UK, as FPTP tends to produce strong majority governments with peaceful transitions of power.
In my own opinion, I think it’s time for a change. The lack of plurality and voter choice in the UK system creates disillusionment and apathy, since people feel unable to vote for a party that represents their interests. This seems to undermine the purpose of holding elections in the first place.
