MA Dissertation: Scottish Electoral Engineering:
The Introduction of the STV System to the Scottish Parliament
My undergraduate dissertation concerns the impact of introducing the Single Transferable Vote to the Scottish Parliament which currently uses the Additional Member System. It is a technical,semi-statistical, evaluation discussing the possible effects of a change of voting system discussing Electoral Laws, District Magnitude, and Ballot Structure. The use of quantitative methods is not central to the analysis as other work on this blog is.
The dissertation revived 68% (an upper B) and allowed me to graduate with a comfortable 2:1.
Below is the abstract of the dissertation and a link to download it in full.
Abstract:
With the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence, the possibility for electoral reform has become a pertinent issue. This dissertation examines the effects on the party system of introducing the Single Transferable Vote (STV) to the Scottish Parliament replacing the Additional Member system (AMS) system. It does this through a three section approach investigating electoral laws, district magnitudes and ballot structure and using empirical calculations to quantify and support the expected outcomes. After considering all of the outcomes, this dissertation comes to the conclusion that the introduction of STV to the Scottish parliament would increase the proportionality of the party system and increase both the number of parties in the vote and in parliament. This in turn is expected to lead to a fairer party system and increased trust and engagement from the voting public.
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