The Westminster Model strikes back, both in Britain and in Canada … but pressures for multi-party politics are still increasing

Abstract

Last week saw majority government restored at the fourth time of asking in Canada, while UK voters rejected a switch away from first-past-the-post, and punished the third party Liberal Democrats severely for their behaviour in the coalition government. So the ‘Westminster Model’ approach to politics clearly has some life left in it. Yet Patrick Dunleavy finds that in both countries, the turbulent swirl of political alignments shows no signs of returning to two party politics. In Canada the previous third party has leapt into the main opposition slot, and in the UK the Scottish National Party swept to an overall majority of Scottish votes. Voters in both countries still show continued disenchantment with their top two parties and an increasing pluralization of political alignment