Single-Member Districts And Proportional Representation Essay, Research Paper

Single-member Districts and Proportional Representation

There are two major types of electoral systems that nation states use to elect people into their government. The two types are single-member districts and proportional representation. No matter which one is used, they both are supposed to represent what the people want, however, they are two systems that are very distinguishable from one another.

In single-member districts, a nation is divided into a large number of districts, and the people in each district vote within their own. There is only one seat for each district. The candidate who receives the most votes in that district wins the seat, sometimes known as a “winner take all” race. Usually, the party platform in these districts usually are fairly moderate.

In proportional representation, the nation is made up of a smaller number of larger districts and is proportional to the number of people in that nation. In the electoral process of a proportional representation system, if a party had a certain percentage of votes, they would get that amount of seats in their district. Compared to a single-member district, if the percents of the votes were two to one, in the single-member the winner would take all, but in the Proportional system, the votes would be divided into that ratio.

These two systems are supposed to accomplish the peoples opinion. It accomplishes this by putting in the people in office that the electorate want and these persons will represent them and their ideas. These systems are supposed to have the “people represent their government.

These systems are not neutral because they do accomplish things. One thing that they accomplish is getting the candidates the people want in office. They accomplish this by voting, and in the single-member districts, the majority rules, and in proportional representation, it is all divided equally. An example is next years elections for the United States house of representatives. It is a single member district and candidates will run, but whoever has the majority vote will only win that seat.

In conclusion, both electoral systems have the same purpose, to have a government represented by its people. Though their makeup has a big difference, they both accomplish what they are intended for. There success has played an important role throughout society and without them, the world would be a different place.