Susan B Anthony 11 November 2016 at 12:06 The UK is often described as having a 'two party system'.There is evidence to support this.The growth of a credible 3rd party and minority parties such as SNP and UKIP and the FPTP system are important factors.It is argued that Britain has a genuine multi-party system,because the share of the vote and number of seats won by two main parties has fallen.Furthermore, voters do not identify themselves with a single party, but form opinions about a range of parties.The rise of the Liberal Democrats has been a deciding factor in the U.K. being considered as 'multi party'.
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national election. The UK is seen to have a multi-party system as the domination of conservative and labour are declining and liberal democrats are beginning to rise. Between 1970 and 2005 the share of the national vote was secured by labour and the conservatives declined by 90% to under 70% recently due to the rise of the liberal democrats. The only thing that stopped the liberal democrat to break through was the FPTP system. Which is a system that can be seen as stopping the UK from having a multi-party political system. In 1983 general election, the share of the national vote won by liberal democrats reached 25.4% which was extremely close the party that won labour which was 27.6%. On the other hand, UK can be seen as not having a multi-party system because of FPTP system, the UK rejected the AV electoral system that had a 42.2% turnout in 2011, Therefore a voting system has been persevered and benefits the larger political parties. This therefore means that people’s votes are wasted and smaller parties have no chance of winning any seats and those cast in ‘safe’ seats where the outcome is inevitable. In conclusion, I believe that the UK has a multi-party system even though the UK is seen as having a two party system because conservative and labour casts in the majority of votes, there are many different parties that represent different parts of the political spectrum and are beginning to rise in recent years and are achieving a substantial percentage of votes and seats. The share of vote and number of seats won by the two major parties has fallen.
Augustus Ceaser The UK political system has two main parties , Labour and the conservatives, who always win a majority of the seats in parliament and percentage of the vote between them. However, since the 1970's this has been changing with more smaller parties winning larger percentages of the vote , the liberal democrats winning 25.4% of the vote, and winning more seats, the SNP won 56 seats in Scotland in 2015. Until 2015 the rise of smaller parties was led by the liberal democrats however they lost much support after their role in the coalition and going back and reversing many of their own promises such as to get rid of university fees. It is now the rise of nationalist parties such as the SNP, Plaid cymru and shinn fein who are taking more and more seats and votes away from these large parties, in 2010 34.9% of the vote went to parties other than the big two and because of these factors i believe that the UK system will be considered a multiparty system in the future. But due to the fact that no party other than the big two has held a majority government and due to the nature of the first past the post system that allows parties to win a majority of the seats without a majority of the vote in country , with this not happening for over fifty years, it may not be possible to yet consider the UK a multi-party system but with 10 years perhaps this will change.
Susan B Anthony 11 November 2016 at 12:06
ReplyDeleteThe UK is often described as having a 'two party system'.There is evidence to support this.The growth of a credible 3rd party and minority parties such as SNP and UKIP and the FPTP system are important factors.It is argued that Britain has a genuine multi-party system,because the share of the vote and number of seats won by two main parties has fallen.Furthermore, voters do not identify themselves with a single party, but form opinions about a range of parties.The rise of the Liberal Democrats has been a deciding factor in the U.K. being considered as 'multi party'.
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national election. The UK is seen to have a multi-party system as the domination of conservative and labour are declining and liberal democrats are beginning to rise. Between 1970 and 2005 the share of the national vote was secured by labour and the conservatives declined by 90% to under 70% recently due to the rise of the liberal democrats. The only thing that stopped the liberal democrat to break through was the FPTP system. Which is a system that can be seen as stopping the UK from having a multi-party political system. In 1983 general election, the share of the national vote won by liberal democrats reached 25.4% which was extremely close the party that won labour which was 27.6%. On the other hand, UK can be seen as not having a multi-party system because of FPTP system, the UK rejected the AV electoral system that had a 42.2% turnout in 2011, Therefore a voting system has been persevered and benefits the larger political parties. This therefore means that people’s votes are wasted and smaller parties have no chance of winning any seats and those cast in ‘safe’ seats where the outcome is inevitable. In conclusion, I believe that the UK has a multi-party system even though the UK is seen as having a two party system because conservative and labour casts in the majority of votes, there are many different parties that represent different parts of the political spectrum and are beginning to rise in recent years and are achieving a substantial percentage of votes and seats. The share of vote and number of seats won by the two major parties has fallen.
ReplyDeleteAugustus Ceaser
ReplyDeleteThe UK political system has two main parties , Labour and the conservatives, who always win a majority of the seats in parliament and percentage of the vote between them. However, since the 1970's this has been changing with more smaller parties winning larger percentages of the vote , the liberal democrats winning 25.4% of the vote, and winning more seats, the SNP won 56 seats in Scotland in 2015. Until 2015 the rise of smaller parties was led by the liberal democrats however they lost much support after their role in the coalition and going back and reversing many of their own promises such as to get rid of university fees. It is now the rise of nationalist parties such as the SNP, Plaid cymru and shinn fein who are taking more and more seats and votes away from these large parties, in 2010 34.9% of the vote went to parties other than the big two and because of these factors i believe that the UK system will be considered a multiparty system in the future. But due to the fact that no party other than the big two has held a majority government and due to the nature of the first past the post system that allows parties to win a majority of the seats without a majority of the vote in country , with this not happening for over fifty years, it may not be possible to yet consider the UK a multi-party system but with 10 years perhaps this will change.