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Chapter five: Winning and Losing elections
- ‘Was GE2017 a return to two-party politics, or modern voters hitting the brick wall of First Past the Post?’
This article looks at the 2017 snap election. This election is of particular interest as it saw the biggest combined vote between the two main parties since 1970, which was then topped in the 2019 General election. Is this a return to prominent two-party politics or are voting patterns playing out within a broken outdated voting system?
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/have-we-gone-back-to-a-two-party-club/
- ‘Ignored and unrepresented: Report reveals how Westminster’s electoral system continues to fail voters’
The Electoral Reform Society takes a look at how the Westminster electoral system is fairing and deems it to fail voters. Feel free to watch the embedded video, as it sums up the arguments made really well. This article is of particular relevance to chapter five as it suggests that Westminster does not represent Britain but rather is a divisive system that benefits the already powerful.
- ‘Facing Up to Multi-Party Politics: How Partisan Dealignment and PR Voting Have Fundamentally Changed Britain's Party Systems’
This is an interesting read as it stresses the need to abandon the anachronistic conceptual idea of a two-party system. Rather, what is put forward in this article is a need to focus on how electoral systems work in an era of dealignment. Voters have many preferences and are thus less predictable. Such rising turbulence suggests fundamental changes to party campaigning as well party electoral strategy.
- ‘Revolt on the Right: Investigating UKIP (2014) - Full Film’
This short video explores the rise of the Party UKIP, known for its far right political stance. UKIP’s rise to popularity is a great example of party turbulence, and the party-dealignment mentioned throughout chapter five. It would be nice if you could think about populism and how it links to the rise of UKIP, when watching this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10SKGEjoJTw
- ‘Robert Peston Analyses General Election Results | Good Morning Britain’
This is a light watch, and is a great way to contextualise the knowledge gained from chapter five. Notice how Brexit seemed to drive vote choice rather than traditional partisan lines of class. Voters are taking on a new type of valence voting by bringing Brexit to the forefront. Think about what this means for parties and politics as a whole.