The First Past the Post System and its Effects on Democratic Representation in the British Parliament

Sammanfattning

Democratic representation is crucial in a representative democracy. To elect representatives there are several different electoral systems. In the United Kingdom a majority system, the First past the post system, is used. This study aims to investigate how the First past the post system affects the democratic representation in the British parliament. Specifically, its focus is on how the democratic representation of the British political parties is affected. This research is carried out by conducting a case study with the British parliament and the First past the post system as the studied case. The study is done by using textual analysis as the chosen method, where various texts are used as material to be able to reach a result. The results showed several aspects of the First past the post system that affected the democratic representation regarding political parties. It suggested that theories such as Duverger’s law are applicable to the party representation in the British parliament, indicating that the First past the post system favours a two-party system where the representation of the other parties is flawed resulting in negatively skewed democratic representation.