PR
Since the election there has unsurprisingly been a lot of talk of PR. Unsurprisingly because the discrepancy between seats and votes is large. Interestingly the Conservative Party basically does ok, getting about the 'right' amount of seats for its votes. It's the Liberal Democrats who still get screwed (though nowhere nearly as badly as the less targeted Alliance vote in 1983/1987), and Labour who do best.
The explanation for this is essentially that FPTP is a winner takes all system, and Labour were the winners. There are secondary factors, which mean Labour are better winners than the Tories, such as the relative size of their constituencies and the turnout. But despite what you might read in the press these are secondary factors, and even a 100% accurate boundary review and Labour constituencies suddenly getting higher turnouts would not make the system proportional.
Advocates of it of course say that is one of its main advantages. It gives strong, majoritarian government. At this point Italy or France (at least in the 4th Republic) are usually knowingly mentioned. Historically it is argued that with PR we would never have been saved by Thatcher from the 1970s, though it is never argued that perhaps we wouldn't have had the "1970s" in the first place.
posted by Matthew @ 5/11/2005 07:28:00 AM
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