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First Past The Post Essay

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There are lots of advantages as well as disadvantages entailed with how the first past the post works. A major advantage of the first past the post system is how simple and straightforward it is for the constituents, as well as people around the world to understand it. For example, in the general election in the UK, Natalie McGarry was elected the MP for the Glasgow East constituency because she gained more votes than the other candidate did, by 56.9% of the votes, which is very simple to understand. However, although the first past the post is one of the few system that are easy to understand, it can in fact lead to distorted results that can make people confused. For instance, at the end of world word 2, the winning party who won the election actually received fewer voter than the party coming in second place. This does not seem fair or matter of fact democratic, because the …show more content…

This can arguably be more democratic that the Proportional representation system where the political parties picks the candidates, instead of the voters. In addition, the voting system make it easier to count the votes so the turnaround on the results is in hours rather than days. As matter of fact, the fastest count time was in Sunderland where it took those only 42min to address who won the election. Furthermore, in the election 2010, only 0.28% of the votes were spoilt which again shows the advantages of this system.
Despite all of the advantages of the first past the post system, there are numerous of disadvantages with this election system. Firstly, the election system has been criticized for not being proportional. Which, means that political parties number of seats in the legislature do not accurately reflect the share of the popular vote in the

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They are used in many different countries, would guarantee the President has full support of the people and it would eliminate the Electoral College, a system many view as old and outdated. Also, many countries who use direct elections with popular vote seem relatively happy with their design. Schlesinger has an important take on why direct elections would not function well in the U.S. “Direct-election proposals recognize that ideological and/or personalist parties would drain votes away from the major parties. Consequently, most direct-election proposals provide that, if no candidate receives 40% of the vote, the two top candidates would fight it out in a run-off” (Schlesinger 2000).

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In my own words some of the pros and cons of the Electoral College are as followed and explained. My pros are that it maintains the federalist system, and allows for minority interests to be represented. It helps maintain the federalist system by keeping all of the branches of government equal. It helps allow for minority interests to be represented by helping the interest and have the ability to be represented and backed up by bigger parties to help get votes. My cons of the Electoral College are that is does not reflect the popular vote, and lowers voter turnout.

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Since everyone contribute to this system, free riding problem can be completely avoided. A significant drawback of this rule is that reaching unique outcome is time-consuming, especially for large number of voters and large number of alternatives. It requires long term renegotiations over again. that

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