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October 12, 2006
Myth 6: Proportional representation helps extremist parties get into power
This is another myth that is based, primarily, on an extreme form of proportional representation, that grants seats in the legislature as exactly as possible in proportion to a party's share of the vote. Such systems are not sensible and no one thinks the UK should have one.
Most proportional representation systems have a 'threshold', a percentage of the vote that a party has to receive in order to be entitled to seats in Parliament. In Germany, for example, the threshold is set at 5 per cent.
More importantly than the question of thresholds, however, is the way different systems treat the more extreme parties.
FPTP remains the only system in use in the United Kingdom to have elected members of extremist parties. Where candidates are ranked, the most disliked candidate cannot win. Where candidates aren't ranked, there is no such safeguard.
In Westminster elections, extremist parties, because they are so unlikely to ever gain enough votes in one constituency to win a seat, are not dealt with, they are ignored. This is fine for the other political parties, but not so fine for the constituents who have to put up with an organised minority encouraging discord within a local community.
Ultimately, if a party can gain, say, 10 per cent of the vote, they should not be denied representation; often such representation will merely be the extra rope they need to hang themselves with, as with the rise and fall of the List Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, even with a pure PR system.
STV has a relatively high local threshold, of 20 per cent in a four-member seat, which tends to keep out the smaller fragments while allowing parties and Independents with a significant degree of local support to win representation. Further, moderate parties are more likely to attract transfers and therefore, if the voters are willing, can win representation despite a fairly low share of first preferences. The Alliance Party manages this in Northern Ireland. Extreme parties rarely attract transfers – people are either for them or strongly against them.
Posted by pauldavies on October 12, 2006
