Kai Arzheimer » mirror http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/blog A political science blog Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:06:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Is this Political Science gone mad? Tactical voting and the tabloidshttp://www.kai-arzheimer.com/blog/is-this-political-science-gone-mad-tactical-voting-and-the-tabloids/ http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/blog/is-this-political-science-gone-mad-tactical-voting-and-the-tabloids/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 19:39:08 +0000 kai http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/blog/?p=400 Being a political scientist is not considered an exciting occupation by people who have a life, and  as party conversation topics go, electoral systems are pretty lousy. But with LibDem support somewhere in the high 20s (if the polls are to be believed), normal people start to wonder why 26% of the vote should give them 12% of the seats, while 28% of the vote for Labour would amount to just under 40% of the seats (you can fiddle with the numbers at the wonderful BBC’s election pages).

300px SDP Liberal Alliance Is this Political Science gone mad? Tactical voting and the tabloids
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So it is perhaps unsurprising that the hitherto pretty arcane idea of tactical voting (voting against your favourite party to support them) is now making headlines in the tabloids: Enter the Mirror’s guide to tactical voting for Labour and LibDem supporters. The information looks valid and may well be part of Labours last-ditch strategy to save what might be saved.

Is this Political Science gone mad? Tactical voting and the tabloids
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