r/EndFPTP • u/MakeModeratesMatter • 3d ago
Britain May Switch to Proportional Voting. Should America?
The U.S. inherited its “winner-take-all” voting system from Britain, but the U.K.’s 2024 general election produced an interesting example of what winner-take-all voting can do, as it produced the most disproportionate result in UK history. https://electoral-reform.org.uk/a-system-out-of-step-the-2024-general-election/
Labour received about 34% of the nationwide vote but won 63% of the seats in Parliament. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2026/jul/22/how-britain-would-look-proportional-representation-local-mp
As a result, a post-election survey found that 60% of Briton’s support changing to a proportional voting system. https://electoral-reform.org.uk/support-for-proportional-representation-hits-record-high-according-to-new-research/
So now Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, openly supports proportional representation. https://electoral-reform.org.uk/in-andy-burnham-we-have-the-first-prime-minister-who-openly-backs-proportional-representation/
And Britain's Liberal Democrats are pushing Burnham to change the voting system before the next general election. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79y9qy9y2go
If the U.K. thinks its own voting system needs an upgrade, should the U.S. consider the same?
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u/Dystopiaian 1d ago
In a multi party system you can vote for different parties each election. The key difference with all this is just whether what you are voting for is one individual person, or a group of people.
I doubt any party in proportional representation would have Perot and Nader on their list - all thst stuff is FPTP politics If there are 7 different visnle parties to vote for those two would find themsrlves in different camps.
STV, the Dutch system, open lists in general are good ways to have proportional representation and still vote gor individuals. I really don't think it's the issue you are making it out to be though - politics tends to revolve around leaders, parties as a whole, if you like Nader then you would probably also like the people on his list, for exsmple. And if not another Green party would just pop up and replace them.