Unit 6C: Comparative UK and US Politics Alan Dobson Professor at the Department of Politics at the University of Dundee writes for the BBC Parliament

Different electoral systems, different weight of votes

The effective expression of the will of the people is rightly seen as a crucial element of any democratic system and political parties play a key role in making such views heard and count.

Nevertheless, elections and the expression of the majority will are not always seen as having overriding importance in either Britain or the USA.

The dominance of first-past-the-post elections in both countries means that governments are often elected by a minority of the people.

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This is because much value is placed on producing a supposedly strong and coherent government made up of one party rather than coalitions which are common when proportional representation is used.

Under a proportional representation system each party gets the same proportion of seats in the legislature as it gets votes in a nation-wide election.

In Britain there is now a wide range of different types of election and while first-past-the-post still dominates in national and local elections, the European and Scottish Parliamentary polls have developed a new perspective.

The elections to the Scottish Parliament for example are an interesting mixture of first-past-the-post for the majority of seats, topped up with the remainder elected by a proportional representation system.

Not surprisingly the Executive, drawn from the Parliament, is a coalition of Labour and Social Democrats.

In the USA voting is strictly first-past-the-post and with, in some states such as California, a common use of referenda on specific issues.

While elections are straightforward first-past-the-post for the House of Commons, the House of Representatives, and the US Senate, one should note that while the former two operate on the basis of roughly equal size by population constituencies, the latter is determined by territory.

Every state of the Union returns two senators irrespective of the size of population. Thus Wyoming, with one of the smallest state electorates in the Union, has the same representation in the Senate as California, the most populous state of the Union.

PM and President

In Britain the prime minister will be the leader of the party which returns to the House of Commons with the largest number of MPs after a General Election which has to be held at least once every five years.

In the USA presidents are elected once every four years. Technically they are actually chosen by electors not the people as a whole.

In the November presidential election the people vote for party lists of electors and not directly for the presidential candidates.

Later on the winning electors formally vote to determine who will be president, however, one might note that in the past some electors have broken ranks and voted for a candidate other than the one on the party list.

If no candidate receives over 50% of the electoral-college vote, the top three candidates are presented to the House of Representatives and they vote on who should be the successful presidential candidate.

However, they vote en bloc by state, rather than each Representative having a vote. Once again Wyoming has as big a say in affairs as California.

Political parties

Parties in Britain are characterized by their ideological leanings, though shifts in recent years, particularly with Blair's middle way, have blurred distinctions.

Labour has a long tradition of socialist beliefs, and remains even today wary of the supposed efficacy of the free-market and close to the trade unions.

It no longer the champion of the nationalization of industries as it was in the past, but advocates public-private partnership.

Labour still emphasizes the importance of health, education and welfare provisions and the creation of a more just and equal society for everyone irrespective of birth, colour, creed, and gender.

The Conservative Party favours less government, more scope for the free-market and generally favours business and the middle and upper classes.

It has a long tradition of paternalist caring for society and a commitment to an inclusive one-nation doctrine, but in recent years that has given way to somewhat more reliance on free markets and valuing the individual at the expense of community.

The Republican and Democratic Parties in the USA traditionally reflect similar ideological divisions: the Republicans find affinity with British Conservatives and the Democrats with Labour.

However, party labelling is less strong and US parties are perhaps best characterized as coalitions of groups with over-lapping interests.

� Professor Alan Dobson 2004
Department of Politics
University of Dundee