Both Single Member Plurality (SMP) and Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) electoral systems are commonly found throughout the world. They are both different in the way in which they function, but yet there are still similarities within them. Each country around the world has their own way of running their elections, this makes it so that more than one electoral system can exist in order to match what is best for the process of electing representatives within their own country. Even though these two systems have similar aspects, they are not the same and each have positives and negatives to their electoral systems. The Single Member Plurality system is the electoral system that is used in countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom.
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The MMP system instead of having the majority win the seat, splits up the seats according to the percentage of votes that a party receives. For example if the Green Party won 5 percent of the votes, then they would also receive 5 percent of the seats. Proportionality is very strong and evident within this system. What is also very different from the Single-Member Plurality system is that in a Mixed-Member Proportional system the voter does not only receive one vote, but instead receives two. This is due to the voter voting not only for their favorite candidate, but also for their favorite party. For example if they were devoted in Germany to the Green Party, but supported Angela Merkel who is part of the Christian Democratic Union party, they would be able to do both. This is quite different from the Single-Member Plurality system where you have to choose between the party and the …show more content…
Such as within the Single-Member Plurality system, some of the positives are things such as: that it is easy to understand; it retains strong link between the voters; it also allows for people to vote for candidates or parties, since there is not a pre-determined party list and therefore can also allow for a third party to run for election. It also means that within fewer number of parties that tend to be in power, these parties will be more broad and will be able to account for more people of different mindset to be incorporated and to feel a part of the larger party. Generally, since only a couple parties tend to be in power, it also makes it much harder for extremist parties to be in the legislature. Within the Mixed-Member Proportional system, it incorporates some of these advantages such as retaining the link between the votes, but it also gets some of the positives from the Proportional Representation system. These would be things such as: minor parties receiving “fair” representation in legislation; there are also fewer “wasted” votes which can occur when people do not like their main options and therefore vote for a third-party candidate that essentially has no chance of winning; also coalitions are possible to create and have function well within a
The MMP system instead of having the majority win the seat, splits up the seats according to the percentage of votes that a party receives. For example if the Green Party won 5 percent of the votes, then they would also receive 5 percent of the seats. Proportionality is very strong and evident within this system. What is also very different from the Single-Member Plurality system is that in a Mixed-Member Proportional system the voter does not only receive one vote, but instead receives two. This is due to the voter voting not only for their favorite candidate, but also for their favorite party. For example if they were devoted in Germany to the Green Party, but supported Angela Merkel who is part of the Christian Democratic Union party, they would be able to do both. This is quite different from the Single-Member Plurality system where you have to choose between the party and the …show more content…
Such as within the Single-Member Plurality system, some of the positives are things such as: that it is easy to understand; it retains strong link between the voters; it also allows for people to vote for candidates or parties, since there is not a pre-determined party list and therefore can also allow for a third party to run for election. It also means that within fewer number of parties that tend to be in power, these parties will be more broad and will be able to account for more people of different mindset to be incorporated and to feel a part of the larger party. Generally, since only a couple parties tend to be in power, it also makes it much harder for extremist parties to be in the legislature. Within the Mixed-Member Proportional system, it incorporates some of these advantages such as retaining the link between the votes, but it also gets some of the positives from the Proportional Representation system. These would be things such as: minor parties receiving “fair” representation in legislation; there are also fewer “wasted” votes which can occur when people do not like their main options and therefore vote for a third-party candidate that essentially has no chance of winning; also coalitions are possible to create and have function well within a