We didn’t have full and equal universal suffrage until 1924. Even ignoring that, elections before about 1832 were barely democratic in a lot of places.
FPTP isn’t inherently undemocratic. It’s not ideal, for any number of reasons, but it does have the advantage of a strong local link to representatives and (usually) leads to strong governments. I personally would prefer STV like Ireland has as a first choice, and as a second choice some form of MMP (like the Scottish Parliament, or New Zealand, or Germany)
“Britain is one of the oldest democracies”
Is it?
We didn’t have full and equal universal suffrage until 1924. Even ignoring that, elections before about 1832 were barely democratic in a lot of places.
It’s a pretty poor example of one, either way.
Not sure with FPTP we are that democratic now… We desperately need electoral reform.
FPTP isn’t inherently undemocratic. It’s not ideal, for any number of reasons, but it does have the advantage of a strong local link to representatives and (usually) leads to strong governments. I personally would prefer STV like Ireland has as a first choice, and as a second choice some form of MMP (like the Scottish Parliament, or New Zealand, or Germany)
I argue for MMPR a lot, because of the local MP element. I like range/score voting too, so maybe combine that with MMPR to get the best system.