A compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Single member plurality electoral system with those of one other system. As part of your answer, you must explain how the two electoral systems work. Which do you think is the best system?

Electoral System includes all the set of rules for conducting elections and declaring the winning candidates. Every Electoral System have their own strengths and weaknesses and different electoral systems are suitable for different environments, political conditions and different other factors that suit the country.. The two most recognized Electoral Systems are the Proportion representation electoral system and the Single member plurality electoral system. Both the Electoral Systems make difference between how the people want the government to work and decisions for them to be made.

Single member plurality electoral system is a system in which the candidates of different parties participate in elections within their constituencies. Each candidate that gets more votes in their constituency wins the seat in the parliament and the party which wins the majority of seats in Parliament is declared as the ruling party until next elections. All the other parties become the opposition parties in the parliament. In SMP system all voters get to vote for single best candidate. Single member plurality system is the most followed system in different countries of world.

Proportional representation electoral system is a system in which all the political parties and independent candidates participate in elections and the seats in parliament to all the parties and independent candidates are given on the basis of the percentage of votes they get in elections.. In this system all parties get seats in elections even if no party has clear majority in elections. In PR system the voters can vote for single best candidate and also by ranking the candidates in order of preference. The Proportional Representation System is followed mostly by the European countries.

The strengths of Single member plurality electoral system are following:

First of all the Single member plurality system makes sure that all the candidates elected in parliament belong to different constituencies which means that from all the regions of country there is one candidate who can bring forward the local issues of that region. Secondly in this system there is no unwanted delay in the decision making process. This is because only the opposition parties cannot intervene in all the steps of decision making, they can only oppose the decisions.

Additionally in single member plurality system the opposition keeps monitoring the government. The opposition finds flaws in the working of government and encourage good decision making so we can say that the government has to work more efficiently to survive opposition in Single member plurality system. Lastly in this system the voting method is simple as voters just have to vote in name of one best candidate they prefer. This system works better in illiterate and over populated countries.

The weaknesses of Single member plurality electoral system are following:

Firstly in the single member plurality system the minority parties and the independent candidates have very less chances of winning the seats. Secondly the amounts of money spent on election campaigns are very high in single member plurality system as every candidate of all the parties have separate campaign in their constituencies and parties campaign in all parts of country. In this system the decisions are taken after the consent and discussion with opposition parties which represent lot of voters so the decisions can be partial. In this system the government can be biased while dealing with issues of people as it can ignore the constituencies in which their candidates didn’t win. Lastly the votes just make difference in deciding candidates not the overall winning party so the votes get wasted in this system.

The Strengths of Proportional representation electoral system are following:

First of all Proportional representation system gives a fair opportunity to independent candidates and minority parties. Secondly in this system the expenses in election campaigns are less because the parties don’t need to get majority they just concentrate on their core supporters. Additionally the people have wide range of candidates to choose as all independent candidates, minority parties and independent groups participate in same elections. The decisions are taken after the consent of all the parties that have members in parliament so the decisions are more likely to be good for everyone in the country. Lastly the votes don’t get wasted in this system, every single vote makes difference to the overall results in the elections.

The Weaknesses of Proportional representation system are following:

In this system the decision making process can be longer because every party following different ideologies give their own suggestions so it becomes difficult to reach any conclusion. Secondly the PR Electoral System gives chances to the extremists individuals and groups as they have more chances to win a seat in this system. Thirdly if voting method is ranking method than this process consumes time and it isn’t understandable to everyone. Lastly in PR system the link of the candidates is broken from their local constituencies. They have to look after all the constituencies rather than their single local constituency.

I think that the Proportion Representation Electoral System is a better Electoral System because the government in PR System produces more discussed and more suited decisions for people, provides wider choice to the voters, government is balanced with various party candidates in it and the wastage of votes is minimum. So I think that PR Electoral System has slightly more strengths that any other system.

Developing countries are countries that are in their growing stage with low industrial and human development. The economic and political development takes place when government of any country takes decisions on overall productivity and growth of that country. In the path of development these countries face various issues or barriers, then government comes with solutions to overcome these barriers. The common barriers faced by most of the developing countries are following :