3.2.2.4 - Comparing Electoral Systems

Comparison Frame

It decides how many votes each citizen can cast, whether voters choose candidates or parties, how winners are calculated, and whether representation is local, proportional, executive, legislative or a mixture.

AQA comparison is not two descriptions placed side by side. It asks what the UK and USA have in common, what differs, and what those similarities and differences do to government and politics.

The three AQA comparative approaches help sharpen the analysis.

The central comparison is that both countries use winner-takes-most mechanisms for the most powerful national institutions, but they do so for different constitutional reasons. The UK uses FPTP for a parliamentary legislature that forms the government. The USA uses a state-based Electoral College for a separately elected President and single-member districts or statewide contests for Congress.

Active reading: Which comparative approach is being used if an answer explains why US candidates spend more time in swing states than safe states?

Legislative Elections

Legislative elections choose representatives who make law, scrutinise government and represent geographical areas. The UK and USA both use territorial representation, but the consequences are different because the UK is parliamentary and the USA is presidential.

For the UK House of Commons, First Past the Post is used. The UK is divided into 650 constituencies. Each constituency elects one MP. Each voter chooses one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins, even if most voters chose other candidates.

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For the US House of Representatives, 435 voting members are elected for two-year terms. Federal law requires states with more than one representative to elect representatives from districts, with no district electing more than one representative. The House is therefore also based on single-member territorial representation.

For the US Senate, each state elects two senators. Senators serve six-year terms, and roughly one-third of the Senate faces election every two years. Senate elections are statewide, so a Senate candidate must build a coalition across a whole state rather than one district.

The structural similarity is clear: both countries use single-member territorial representation for powerful lower-house elections. The structural difference is more important for evaluation. In the UK, a Commons majority normally produces a government. In the USA, congressional elections are separated from presidential election, so voters can produce divided government: one party can hold the presidency while another controls one or both chambers of Congress.

The rational effect is that UK parties treat Commons elections as battles for government office. US parties treat congressional elections as battles for legislative control, presidential support or presidential constraint. That is why a UK general election can remove a Prime Minister and government directly, while a US midterm can weaken a President without removing the President from office.

Executive Elections

The UK and USA both have a national executive, but they do not elect it in the same way.

The UK Prime Minister is not directly elected by voters as Prime Minister. Voters choose MPs. After the election, the monarch appoints as Prime Minister the person best placed to command confidence in the House of Commons, normally the leader of the party with a Commons majority. This is an indirect parliamentary route to executive power.

Text process map:

The US President is elected separately from Congress through the Electoral College. Voters in each state choose a slate of electors pledged to a presidential ticket. There are 538 electoral votes, and a candidate needs 270 to win. Each state receives electoral votes equal to its House seats plus two senators; the District of Columbia has three. Most states use winner-take-all allocation, while Maine and Nebraska use a congressional district method.

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The 2024 US presidential election shows the arithmetic. Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes and Kamala Harris won 226. Trump also won the national popular vote, so 2024 does not show a popular-vote/electoral-vote split. The 2016 election is the recent example that does: Donald Trump won the Electoral College while Hillary Clinton won more votes nationally.

The cultural comparison matters. UK political culture often treats a general election as a choice of government, even though voters formally elect local MPs. US political culture treats presidential elections as national leadership contests, but the constitutional structure makes the state-by-state map decisive.

Active reading: Why is it inaccurate to say the UK directly elects a Prime Minister or that the USA elects a President by a simple national popular vote?

Proportionality And Representation

These are related, but they are not identical.

The UK has a sharp internal contrast. Westminster uses FPTP, but several devolved institutions use systems designed to be more proportional.