From Votes To Seats The Operation of the UK Electoral System since 1945

by Johnston, Ron; Pattie, Charles; Dorling, Danny; Rossiter, David

• ISBN13: 9780719058523
• ISBN10: 071905852X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-30
• Publisher: MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

From Votes to Seatsis a study of the 14 general elections held between 1950 and 1997 in Britain. Arguing that the British electoral system treats political parties disproportionately, the authors show that the amount of bias in those elections results substantially increased over the period, benefiting Labour at the expense of the Conservatives. With the use of imaginative diagrams, this book examines the electoral process in detail, illustrating how it operates, while stressing the important role of tactical voting in the production of recent election results.

Author Biography

Ron Johnston is Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.

Charles Pattie is Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield.

Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at the University of Leeds.

David Rossiter is Research Fellow in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vi
List of tables	xii
List of boxes	xiv
Preface	xv
A note on the figures	xxii
From votes to seats: disproportionality and bias	1	(19)
Geography, malapportionment and gerrymandering	20	(30)
Defining Parliamentary constituencies in the UK	50	(40)
From theory to practice: the components of bias in UK general election results	90	(13)
Malapportionment: UK style	103	(26)
The gerrymandered UK	129	(49)
Reactive malapportionment	178	(20)
Conclusions: electoral reform?	198	(31)
Appendix	229	(2)
References	231	(6)
Index	237