How would a Political scientist explain the outcome of the 2001 General Election?.
In Great Britain, the law states that, because we are a democracy, the electorate should consist of all British citizens over the age of 18, other than immigrants, criminals and the insane. Other than the aforementioned, parties, Britain has Universal Suffrage and is a democracy, meaning that everyone has a right to vote and freedom of speech. To win a General Election, a party must win more seats in the House of Commons than any other rival party. To win seats in parliament, you must receive the majority of votes in a constituency (voting area). Constituencies receive seats according to their size. Each constituency has a representative of each political party. Thus, the electoral system in Great Britain is a "First Past The Post" system, where the number of seats a party wins is not directly proportional to the number of votes that they have won but to the number of constituencies that they have won. The main political parties with a high chance of being elected are Labour and Conservatives. Traditionally, Conservatives believe in keeping things as they are and tend to represent owners of businesses, the aristocracy and the upper/middle classes. Labour traditionally represents the working class and supports trade unions etc. However, recently, Labour has split, with "Old Labour" staying close to its roots of working class representation, whilst "New Labour" has moved more towards the centre of the political spectrum. This means that, whilst "Old Labour" has ostracized owners of businesses and the middle classes by their policies on taxation and trade unions, "New Labour" now have an increased appeal to the rapidly growing middle classes. This means that Labour has become a "catch-all" party, which attracts a very wide cross-section of the electorate.
However, the "First Past The Post system, whilst being good because it avoids coalition governments which try to take too many views into account and therefore are not as decisive as governments with just one main party in office, is biased.
