André Lecours
Stephanie Kerr
University of Ottawa
2014 will be an historic year for the Scots, as they will be called by their government to vote in a referendum on the political status of their community. This referendum, promised by the Scottish National Party (SNP), is surprising considering the electoral system used to elect members of the Scottish Parliament.
When the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, Scotland chose not to adopt the simple plurality system used for British elections, but rather settled on a mixed electoral system that made minority or coalition governments more likely.
The first victory of the SNP in 2007, after 8 years of Labour government, was also a minority government. In 2011, however, to the surprise of all, the SNP won a majority of seats, allowing it to form a majority government and relegating the three unionist parties (Labour, Liberal-Democrat and Conservative) to the opposition.
