Great+Britain+Pd.+3+Electoral+Process

The British electoral system is based on a system called "First-Past-The-Post". FPTP is a system that says whoever gets the most amount of votes is the winner. Anyone can run and votes must be counted accurately, making them free and fair elections. The Great Britain political system is dominated by two parties, the Conservative and Labour parties.

__Conservative Party__-
 * party of landowners
 * no official date of foundation
 * formed during the 1830s
 * supporters are usually rural and suburban citizens
 * leader-William Hague
 * foreign policy was based on uniting the nation
 * domestic policy was focused on introducing a more moderate class system through reform of social laws

__Labour Party__-
 * founded in 1900
 * given its present name in 1906
 * supporters are usually urban citizens
 * leader-Tony Blair
 * practiced "blocked membership" (created by organizations levying a contribution to the Labour Party as a part of their other charges)
 * practiced "blocked votes" (the number of votes allotted to any one trade union calculated according to the size of its contributions to the Labour Party. votes then can be used at Labour Party Conferences to sway decisions.

__Level of Participation__-
 * British citizens have relatively high percentages of qualified voters. Although there was a decline in the elections of 2001 and 2005, more than 70% of eligible citizens normally vote in parliamentary elections. Today voters have less party loyalty but voting behavior is still connected to social class and region.
 * Until WWII voting in Britain largely followed class lines. The working class supported the Labour Party and the middle class supported the Conservatives. As reflected in Tony Blair's "Third Way" both parties have come back to the center from extreme views of the 1900s. In post- Blair years the distinction between Labour and Conservative have continued to blur, leaving room for other parties to compete for votes in all social classes.
 * The Labour Party usually does well in urban and industrial areas as well as Scotland and Wales.
 * The Conservative Party usually win in rural and surburban areas; mostly England.

__Elections-__
 * Elections are held every 5 years but the Prime Minister may call them earlier. Officially, elections occur after the Crown dissolves Parliament, but that always happens because the Prime Minister requests it. The power to call elections is very important because the Prime Minister always calls them when they think the majority party has the best chance of winning.
 * British parliamentary elections are "winner take all" with no runoff elections. Within the single-member plurality system, each party selects a candidate to run for each district post. The person that wins the most votes gets the position even if they do not recieve the majority vote.
 * First-Past-The-Post was a system created since MPs do not have to live in the districts that they represent, each party decides who runs in each district. Safe Districts are used so that the party almost wins. Political neophytes are selected to run in districts that a party knows it will lose.

__Election Results__-
 * In the 2005 elections the Labour Party recieved 35.3% of the votes and gained 356 out of 646 seats for a majority. The Conservative Party gained 32.4% of the votes and 198 seats. While the Liberal Democrats recieved 22% of the votes and 62 seats in legislature.
 * In the 2010 elections the Conservative Party won 36.1% of the votes and 306 seats. The Labour Party won 29% of the votes and 258 seats. The Liberal Democrats won 23% of the votes and 57 seats in the legislature. While other political parties won 11.9% of the votes and 28 seats.
 * The 2010 elections resulted in a hung parliament. There weren't enough votes casted to determine an absolute majority or a clear winner. As a result, a coalition government had to be formed; which is the combination of multiple political parties so that a absolute majority could be made. A coalition government formed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats with the Labour Party as the Loyal Opposition.





Great Britain Pd. 3 Table of Contents