Pros And Cons Of Tactical Voting

1. Explain the term Tactical Voting?

Tactical voting is where a voter will vote for a different party to what they initially were going to vote for. This is usually the case when their first choices are parties which might not stand a very good chance of getting in but they also want the current government out. This is not always a good thing as the party who is not chosen because of tactical voting now doesn’t stand a chance (or at least not a very good one) of gaining a seat. An example of when tactical voting was used would be in 1997 when the Labour and Lib-Dem voters voted for the party which stood the highest chance of beating the conservatives in that election. So in this case Lib-Dems decided that Labour had the best chance of winning …show more content…
On the other hand, you could argue FPTP is the only system that needs a strong opposition as it is the only system designed (apart from hybrid) to produce a strong government or a majority government. Out of all the voting systems FPTP in my opinion is without a doubt the simplest system to use as it relies on this to function correctly, this in turn means people will usually turnout more often. Although the candidates a pre chosen meaning it is less democratic and the parties can manipulate this to their advantage. I think it is wrong to say FPTP has many weaknesses and few strength’s however, this is because the fact that FPTP has been the main voting system in England for decades shows that even though it has weaknesses the pros must out way the cons as the system would not be in use to this day. I can see the other side to this however, as with every system sacrifices in different areas must be made so the system is more favourable over another and FPTP makes those sacrifices in proportionality and fairness to achieve an overall stronger government. Which in my opinion justifies these