From Votes to Seats

The Operation of the Uk Electoral System Since 1945

Ron Johnston author Charles Pattie author Daniel Dorling author Danny Dorling author David Rossiter author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Manchester University Press

Published:1st Jun '01

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

From Votes to Seats cover

The British electoral system treats parties disproportionately and differentially. This original study of the fourteen general elections held between 1950 and 1997 shows that the amount of bias in those election results increased substantially over the period, benefiting Labour at the expense of the Conservatives. Labour's advantage peaked at the 1997 general election when, even assuming there had been an equal share of the votes for the two parties, it would have won 82 more seats than its opponents. This situation came about because of different aspects of two well-known electoral abuses - malapportionment and gerrymandering. With the use of imaginative diagrams the book examines these processes in detail, illustrating how they operate and stresses the important role of tactical voting in the production of recent election results.

"'I have no doubt that this is an important contribution to knowledge and to the debate about electoral reform.' Graham Thomas, University of Reading"

ISBN: 9780719058523

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 14mm

Weight: 376g

264 pages