1999
DOI: 10.1111/1467-856x.00008
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Changing Biases in the Operation of the UK's Electoral System, 1950–97

Abstract: The biased outcomes of recent British general elections, whereby the two main parties (Conservative and Labour) would have achieved different percentages of the seats in the House of Commons for the same percentages of the votes cast, are explored, using a method of bias decomposition developed by a New Zealand political scientist.

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Cited by 49 publications
(3 citation statements)
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“…Other factors such as the number of voters in a constituency and differences in turnout can also influence the s/v, since-other things being equal-it takes fewer votes to win a constituency with fewer voters. 65 The unpredictable operation of the electoral system in 2017 can be illustrated by comparing it with previous general elections. Superficially at least, Britain had returned to 'traditional' two-party politics.…”
Section: The Electoral System: the Other National Lotterymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Other factors such as the number of voters in a constituency and differences in turnout can also influence the s/v, since-other things being equal-it takes fewer votes to win a constituency with fewer voters. 65 The unpredictable operation of the electoral system in 2017 can be illustrated by comparing it with previous general elections. Superficially at least, Britain had returned to 'traditional' two-party politics.…”
Section: The Electoral System: the Other National Lotterymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Moreover, during his time in office, Blair's attempts to fulfil this statecraft function were helped by the precise configuration of constituency boundaries. The geographical dispersion of party support across the UK made the conversion of votes to seats more efficient for the Labour party than for the Conservatives (Rossiter et al 1999; Pattie and Johnston 2001). Indeed, leaving the issue of parliamentary majorities aside, Blair's record in this area is less impressive.…”
Section: Re-evaluating Blairmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In turn, Rae reformulated Duverger's Law to state that 'plurality formulae are always associated with two-party competition except where strong local minority parties exist' (Rae, 1971, 95), and Riker built upon Rae's reformulation, observing that: 'Plurality election rules bring about and maintain two-party competition except in countries where (1) third parties nationally are continually one of two parties locally and (2) one party among several is almost always the Condorcet winner in elections ' (1982, 761). 6 The electoral system does work to the detriment of minor parties but these parties persist, which means that there are limits to the mechanical and psychological effects postulated by Duverger (Rossiter et al, 1999). SMSP and Duverger's Law have, nonetheless, a powerful effect on the structuring and conduct of politics: first, voters act strategically in voting for the party closest to their preferences; second, there is a powerful incentive against wasting votes; third, parties wish to maximize representation so that there is an incentive to remain distinct; fourth, it tends to reduce the number of effective parties to two located within one dominant issue dimension; and fifth, it encourages singleparty governments with a strong partisan base.…”
Section: Social Choice and Electoral Choicementioning
confidence: 99%