Would a change in voting system improve democracy?
People often blame the lack of political interest regarding general elections on the fact that our current voting system for the Prime Ministerial elections doesn't often produce the most representative results- as seen in this years general election, in which the UK Independence party received over 3,000.000 votes and gained 1 seat, whereas the Liberal Democrats got just over 2,400.000 votes and revived 8 seats in return.
This happened because of the way our voting system is established. In First Past to Post (FPTP), the country is split into 650 'consistences' with a single member of Parliament (MP) representing each one on the House of Commons in Westminster. MP elections are held every first Thursday of May every 5 years, due to the Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011. Individuals then stand to represent a party, and the candidate with the most votes get the seat in the Commons and becomes an MP.
Nonetheless, the successful candidate just needs the most votes in FPTP, and not to receive 50% or more of the votes. For example, a liberal Democrat MP in the 2010 general election won with just 28% of the vote, despite 72% voting for other candidates, or against them.
Another example of this is the 2015 General Election. Overall, the Conservatives won, with more than 11,000,00 votes, which translates to 36.9% of the votes. Again, this means that 63.1% of the votes were against them - however, out of all the parties they received the most votes, so in a way they had a legitimate rule.
Therefore, due to this unrepresentative system, some may feel discouraged to participate in general elections, as they feel their vote won't count or make a difference. Nonetheless, there is still high political participation regarding pressure groups, smaller party membership and petitions, so the voting system of the general election must be considered a factor to the declined voter turnout.
Alternative voting systems can include the alternative vote (AV), single transferable vote (STV), additional member system and Party List PR. Theses are either stemmed from Proportional representation, a majoritarian system, or a mix of the both.
However, some argue that a change in voting system would not improve democracy at all, as during the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition of 2010-2015, alternative vote was offered as a substitute to FPTP via a referendum, but this was voted down by the public. People yet again argue that it was only voted against due to the overpowering Conservative party, and that people were frustrated towards the liberal democrat party due to breaking their promise regarding rising tuition fees, so people voted down their proposition in anger.
More information of the other voting systems can be found here - http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems
