Mixed-Member Proportional Representation Explained

Summary

The Queen Lion seeks to enhance democracy in her kingdom by addressing dissatisfaction with the voting system. The island's election, using First Past the Post, results in Tuatara winning all seats despite only receiving 49% of the vote. Kiwi proposes the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system, doubling council seats and allowing two votes per citizen—one for a local representative and another for a favorite party. This ensures a more balanced council reflecting citizens' preferences, addressing underrepresentation and fostering political diversity.

Takeaways

• 👑 The Queen Lion is seeking to improve democracy in her kingdom.
• 🗳️ Citizens were allowed to elect representatives through a First Past the Post system, leading to dissatisfaction.
• 📊 The election results showed Tuatara with 49%, Kea with 48%, and Kakapo with 3% of the votes.
• 🏆 Despite having fewer votes, Tuatara won all seats due to the First Past the Post system.
• 🤔 Citizens are unhappy because the majority who voted for other parties have no representation.
• 💡 Kiwi proposes the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system to Queen Lion.
• 🔄 MMP involves doubling the council seats and allowing citizens to cast two votes.
• 🏛️ The first vote is for a local representative, and the second vote is for a favorite political party.
• 📈 The second votes are tallied to balance the council's representation with the actual voter preferences.
• 📋 Political parties create a list of candidates for the extra seats, which are filled based on party support.
• 🌐 MMP reduces the impact of gerrymandering and prevents minority rule by minimizing wasted votes.
• 🌈 It encourages political diversity by allowing citizens to vote for smaller parties without losing influence.

Q & A

What is the main issue with the current voting system in the animal kingdom?

The main issue is that the current First Past the Post system results in a lack of representation for the majority of citizens who did not vote for the winning party, leading to dissatisfaction.

What is the percentage of votes received by each party in the election?

Tuatara gets 49%, Kea gets 48%, and Kakapo gets 3% of the votes.

Why are citizens unhappy with the election results?

Citizens are unhappy because despite Tuatara winning by a slim margin, they get 100% of the seats, leaving 51% of voters without representation.

What is the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system proposed by Kiwi?

MMP is a system where the number of council seats is doubled and each citizen gets two votes: one for a local representative and one for their favorite political party.

How does the second vote in the MMP system help balance representation?

The second vote is used to tally support for each party and additional members are added to the council to make it proportional to the overall vote, ensuring fair representation.

Who decides which party members get the extra seats in the MMP system?

Political parties decide by making a list of their favorite candidates in the order they want them to get on the council before the election.

What are some potential disadvantages of the MMP system?

One potential disadvantage is that it may give party leaders greater control over their members by rewarding or punishing them through their placement on the party list.

How does the MMP system eliminate Gerrymandering?

MMP reduces the impact of Gerrymandering by ensuring that fewer votes are wasted and that representation on the council is more closely aligned with the actual preferences of the citizens.

What is the strategic voting behavior of Kakapo voters in the local elections?

Kakapo voters, knowing their candidate has little chance of winning, may strategically vote for Kea in local elections to increase the likelihood of having a more tolerable representative.

How does the MMP system encourage political diversity?

MMP allows citizens to vote for smaller parties they like without worrying about the strategic implications of their vote, as every vote contributes to the party's overall representation.

What is the final decision made by Queen Lion regarding the voting system?

Queen Lion decides to switch her kingdom to the MMP system to ensure the Jungle Council is a true reflection of her citizens' preferences.

Outlines

00:00

🐾 Introduction to the Election Dilemma

Queen Lion is seeking to improve democracy in her kingdom by allowing citizens to elect representatives to the Jungle Council. However, she notices dissatisfaction with the voting system. An election on one of the islands reveals a significant issue with the First Past the Post system, where Tuatara wins all seats despite only receiving 49% of the votes. This leaves 51% of the voters without representation, highlighting the unfairness of the current system.

🌳 Kiwi's MMP Proposal

Kiwi, a citizen, suggests the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system to Queen Lion. This system involves doubling the council seats and giving citizens two votes each. The first vote is for a local representative, while the second vote is for a favorite political party. The second votes are tallied to show overall party support, and additional members are added to the council to balance representation, making the council more proportional to the citizens' preferences.

📊 Balancing Representation with MMP

In the MMP system, the imbalance of the council is corrected by adding members to make it proportional. Tuatara, being over-represented, and Kea, being underrepresented, are adjusted until all parties are fairly represented. The final seat is given to Kakapo, the smallest party, to ensure all citizens' preferences are reflected in the council.

📋 Party List and MMP Dynamics

Political parties play a crucial role in MMP by providing a list of preferred candidates for the additional seats. This gives party leaders significant control over their members, as they can influence their chances of getting a council seat by adjusting their position on the party list.

🗳️ Benefits and Strategic Voting in MMP

MMP offers several benefits, including reduced wasted votes, elimination of Gerrymandering, and prevention of minority rule. It also encourages political diversity by allowing citizens to vote for smaller parties without the need for strategic voting. This ensures that every vote counts towards party representation on the council.

🏝️ Transition to MMP

Queen Lion decides to implement MMP in her kingdom. This change ensures that the Jungle Council now accurately reflects the desires of the citizens, marking a significant improvement over the previous voting system.

Keywords

💡Democracy

Democracy is a system of government where citizens exercise power by voting. In the video, Queen Lion's kingdom is striving to improve its democracy by addressing the dissatisfaction with the voting system. Democracy is the overarching theme as it drives the need for electoral reform to better represent the citizens' preferences.

💡First Past the Post

First Past the Post (FPTP) is an electoral system where the candidate with the most votes in a constituency wins a seat. The video illustrates how this system can lead to a lack of proportional representation, as seen when Tuatara wins all the seats despite only receiving 49% of the votes.

💡Representation

Representation in a political context refers to the act of having elected officials who reflect the views and interests of their constituents. The video highlights the issue of underrepresentation, where 51% of voters feel unrepresented due to the FPTP system.

💡Political Parties

Political parties are organized groups of people who share similar political views and work to promote their common interests. In the script, parties like Kea, Tuatara, and Kakapo compete for votes and council seats, showing how parties structure the electoral competition.

💡Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)

Mixed Member Proportional is an electoral system that combines elements of FPTP with proportional representation. The video explains how MMP allows for a more balanced council by doubling the number of seats and giving citizens two votes, one for a local representative and one for a party.

💡Local Representatives

Local representatives are elected officials who serve the interests of a specific geographic area. The video emphasizes the citizens' desire to maintain local representation, which is why MMP is proposed as a solution to keep local ranges intact.

💡Strategic Voting

Strategic voting occurs when voters choose candidates not necessarily based on preference but to influence the outcome of an election. The video mentions how Kakapo voters might vote for Kea in local elections to prevent Tuatara from winning, even if they prefer Kakapo.

💡Proportional Representation

Proportional representation is a system where the distribution of seats corresponds to the proportion of votes each party receives. The video demonstrates how MMP achieves this by adding extra seats to the council to reflect the actual preferences of the citizens.

💡Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral boundaries to favor one party. The video suggests that MMP reduces the impact of gerrymandering by making votes more effective and reducing the importance of local constituency boundaries.

💡Minority Rule

Minority rule occurs when a smaller group holds power over a larger group. The video points out that the FPTP system can lead to minority rule, as seen when Tuatara, with 49% of the vote, controls 100% of the seats.

💡Party Lists

Party lists are rankings of candidates chosen by political parties to fill seats in proportional representation systems. The video explains that in MMP, parties create lists to determine which members get the extra seats allocated to balance the council.

Highlights

Queen Lion seeks to improve democracy in her kingdom.

Introduction of the Jungle Council with elected representatives.

Unhappiness among citizens due to the First Past the Post voting system.

Election results show Tuatara with 49%, Kea with 48%, and Kakapo with 3%.

Tuatara wins all seats despite not having majority support.

Citizens' dissatisfaction with lack of representation for non-Tuatara voters.

Introduction of Kiwi's suggestion for a better voting system.

Proposal of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system.

MMP involves doubling the council seats and giving citizens two votes.

First vote for local representation remains unchanged.

Second vote allows citizens to choose their favorite political party.

Tallying second votes to reveal overall party support and council imbalance.

Adding party members to the council to achieve proportional representation.

Political parties create lists of preferred candidates for extra seats.

MMP allows for a more accurate reflection of citizens' preferences.

MMP reduces the impact of Gerrymandering and prevents minority rule.

Citizens have more choice and political diversity is encouraged.

Local elections require strategic voting, unlike party preference voting.

Queen Lion decides to adopt MMP for a true reflection of citizens' desires.

Transcripts

Queen Lion of the animal kingdom is looking to improve her democracy. She recently allowed

citizens to elect representatives to the Jungle Council which governs the kingdom.

However, she recognizes that her citizens are not happy with the voting system. Let’s

watch an election on one of the small islands of her Kingdom to see why:

On this island there are three political parties: the two big ones: Kea and Tuatara, and a small

third party, Kakapo.

On election day, the citizens each cast one vote for a local candidate they want to represent

the range they live in. The results are as follows:

With the average across the island that Tuatara gets 49%, Kea gets 48% and Kakapo gets 3%.

The election is run using First Past the Post, meaning that candidate with the most votes

wins. Because Tuatara got the most votes in each range, they get to control 100% of the

seats on the council.

And this is why so many citizens are unhappy. The majority of them, the 51% who voted for

other parties, get no representation on the council at all.

This seems unfair to Queen Lion but she’s not sure how to fix it. The citizens like

having local representatives and don’t want to change the range boundaries.

But luckily Kiwi, one of the citizens of this island, has a suggestion for Queen Lion on

how she can make the system better while keeping local representation and leaving the ranges

as they are.

The idea is called Mixed Member Proportional or MMP and it makes two changes: the number

of seats on the council is doubled and each citizen gets two votes, not one.

Here’s how it works:

At first, election day for Kiwi is just the same as before.

He gets a list of candidates running to represent his local range on the council. Kiwi picks

one and the winner will be the candidate with the most votes.

So far the system is no better – Tuatara again wins all the local elections and still

more than half of the citizens don’t have any representation. But here’s how Kiwi’s

second vote – and those extra seats on the council – fix this.

Kiwi uses his second vote to pick his favorite political party.

These second votes are tallied up and show the percentage of support that each of the

political parties has among the citizens as a whole and reveals how imbalanced the council

is so far.

To fix this imbalance, members of the political parties are added, one at a time, to make

the council more proportional.

Tuatara is the most over-represented and Kea the most underrepresented, so Kea gets the

first empty seat.

This continues, adding one Kea at a time until both Turatara and Kea are over-represented

and Kakapo is under-represented, so they get the final seat.

Now, the jungle council represents, as close as possible, the actual preferences of the

citizens – which is a huge improvement over the old, first past the post method.

There is, however, one interesting question that should arise at this point:

Exactly who decides which members of the parties get those extra seats?

The way it works is that, before the election, the political parties make a list of their

favorite candidates in the order that they want them to get on the council.

So, if there is only get one extra seat, the name at the top of their list is chosen. If

they get two seats, the first two are chosen, and so on.

This makes MMP a bit different from other voting methods in that it makes political

parties an official part of the way the election works.

This may give the party leaders greater control over their members because they can reward

or punish their actions by changing their placement on the party list.

While this may be a disadvantage of MMP there are a number of other benefits that Queen

Lion, in particular, likes.

Because fewer votes are wasted, it mostly Eliminates Gerrymandering and prevents minority

rule.

It also gives more choice to the citizens by encouraging political diversity.

This point is worth expanding on.

Notice how, with MMP, the percentage of votes for the local representatives isn’t the

same as for the parties. This is because in the local elections, citizens have to vote

strategically.

For example, Kakapo voters don’t like Tuatara at all, but they can tolerate Kea. Since there

are so few Kakapo voters they know that their candidate doesn’t have a chance of winning

the local election, so it’s really a race between the two big parties. Thus many of

the Kakapo will vote Kea in the hope that he might win and be their representative.

However, when it comes to voting for their favorite political party, this strategy doesn’t

matter. The more votes a party gets the more representatives it has on the council.

So citizens are free to vote for smaller parties they like like knowing that every vote counts.

Queen Lion reviews her options and decides to switch her Kingdom to MMP. Now, for the

first time, the Jungle Council is a true reflection of what her citizens want.