Welcome to the problem with First Past the Post Voting explained by me, CGP Grey.

The royal family has a problem, but this isn't just any royal family.

These are the lions, rulers of the jungle since time immemorial.

There are protests over the monarchy's absolute power and the citizens of the animal kingdom want to say in how they are governed.

Bending to the pressure, Lion has abdicated

his crown and king is to be an elected office. To ensure a smooth transition, and because she is

crafterer than her husband, the Queen Linus is remaining on the throne with the power to set

the rules for all elections in her kingdom. She has declared that all citizens get one and only one

vote and that the candidate with the most votes wins the crown. This method of voting is most often called First Pass the Post, awkwardly abbreviated as FPTP or winner take all. The system is simple, fair, and logical. Right? Actually, no. It's a terrible, terrible idea. Why? Well, to see the problems with First Past the Post, let's watch the first election unfold in the animal kingdom. It's an exciting time for the burgeoning democracy and seven hopeful candidates come forward to run and represent their parties. They put on their best campaigns, citizens head out to the polls and the votes are counted. The results come in as follows. Turtle gets 9% of the vote, monkey gets 18, gorilla gets 19, owl gets 13, leopard gets 20, tiger gets 15, and snake gets 6. Under the rules of first-passed the post, Leopard is crowned the winner and she gets to rule for the length of her term. But take another look at the results and you'll see the first problem with this system, minority rule. The vast majority of citizens, 80%, wanted someone else's king, but Leopard still won. There were only

seven candidates in this race, but if you imagine if there had been 20, she might have only gotten

5% of the vote, but still been elected. This problem of minority rule is only the beginning.

The second problem with First Pass the Post is that, given enough time, it results in an

inevitable, unavoidable two-party system. Why? To see, let's watch what happens

over several election cycles. Leopard has had her term in office, and it's again election time

in the young democracy. Only now, all the citizens of Animal Kingdom remember the results from last

time. This information changes how they'll behave, particularly Snake and Turtle voters,

who must face the reality that they backed unappealing extremist candidates who don't have a chance of winning. Turtle voters, who were unhappy under Leopard rule, decide to back the candidate who has the best chance of winning, Gorilla. Now, snake voters want to vote for Tiger, who is the candidate they have the most in common with, but they're afraid to because Leopard is running a negative campaign against her competitors. Snake voters, not liking the idea of guerrilla rule, vote strategically for Leopard. The final result looks like this, with Leopard getting 26% of the vote and Gorilla getting 28, making him the new king. Snake and Turtle, seeing their dismal results and knowing the cost of their campaigns, decide to drop out of future races. What started out is the seven-party system is now down to five.

Fast forward to the next election. Only five candidates run, and again the voters remember

what happened last time. In this election, it's owl voters who recognize that their candidate

cannot win. They are centrist voters and less ideological than the rest of the animal kingdom.

As such, they don't really like gorilla or leopard. Both gorilla and leopard know this, so they each run negative campaigns to capitalize on the fears of the centrists. Owl voters split their vote and are mostly voting against the candidate they dislike rather than supporting the candidate they do like. After this election, Gorilla gets 33% of the vote and Leopard gets 34, making her the winner. Owl, as did Turtle and Snake before her, drops out of the race.

In the last election, we'll look at, Monkey and Tiger voters are unhappy. They both really

...