Landslide victory

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A landslide victory is an electoral victory in a political system, when one candidate or party receives an overwhelming majority of the votes or seats in the elected body, thus all but utterly eliminating the opponents. The winning party has reached more voters than usual, and a landslide victory is often seen in hindsight as a turning point in people's views on political matters.

Part of the reason for a landslide victory is sometimes a bandwagon effect, as a significant number of people may decide to vote for the party which is in the lead in the pre-election opinion polls, regardless of its politics.

The term is borrowed from geology, where a landslide takes almost everything with it on its way.

Australia

As in other Commonwealth countries with single-member constituencies, a landslide in the Australian House of Representatives occurs when one party has a large majority of the seats.

  • 1917: The Nationalists won 53 seats while the Labor Party won just 22.
  • 1929: The Labor Party won 47 seats while the Nationalists won just 14.
  • 1931: The United Australian Party won 40 seats while the Country Party won just 16.
  • 1943: The Labor Party won 49 seats while the UAP and the Country Party tied with just 12.
  • 1946: The Labor Party won 43 seats while the Coalition won just 29.
  • 1949: The Coalition won 74 seats while the Labor Party won just 48.
  • 1955: The Coalition won 75 seats while the Labor Party won just 49.
  • 1955: The Coalition won 77 seats while the Labor Party won just 47.
  • 1966: The Coalition won 82 seats while the Labor Party won just 41.
  • 1975: The Coalition won 91 seats while the Labor Party won just 36.
  • 1977: The Coalition won 86 seats while the Labor Party won just 38.
  • 1983: The Labor Party won 75 seats while the Coalition won just 50.
  • 1996: The Coalition won 93 seats while the Labor Party won just 49.
  • 2013: The Coalition won 89 seats while the Labor Party won just 55.

Reference: [1]

Canada

A map of the vote by province in 1940 shows the scale of the Liberals' landslide victory.
A map of the vote by province in 1984 shows the scale of the Progressive Conservatives' landslide victory.

Like the UK, a landslide victory in Canada occurs when a party gains a large majority in the House of Commons.

  • 1874 - The Liberals won 133 seats while the Conservatives won just 73 seats.
  • 1878 - The Conservatives won 137 seats while the Conservatives won just 69 seats.
  • 1882 - The Conservatives won 139 seats while the Conservatives won just 71 seats.
  • 1900 - The Liberals won 132 seats while the Conservatives won just 81.
  • 1904 - The Liberals won 139 seats while the Conservatives won just 75.
  • 1908 - The Liberals won 133 seats while the Conservatives won just 85.
  • 1911 - The Conservatives won 133 seats while the Liberals won just 86.
  • 1917 - The Conservatives won 153 seats while the Liberals won just 82.
  • 1930 - The Conservatives won 137 seats while the Liberals won just 91.
  • 1935 - The Liberals won 171 seats while the Conservatives won just 39.
  • 1940 - The Liberals won 178 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 39.
  • 1945 - The Liberals won 125 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 67.
  • 1949 - The Liberals won 190 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 41.
  • 1953 - The Liberals won 171 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 51.
  • 1958 - The Progressive Conservatives won 208 seats while the Liberals won just 48.
  • 1968 - The Liberals won 155 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 72.
  • 1984 - The Progressive Conservatives won 211 seats while the Liberals won just 40.
  • 1988 - The Progressive Conservatives won 169 seats while the Liberals won just 83.
  • 1993 - The Liberals won 177 seats while the Bloc Quebecois won just 54. The ruling Progressive Conservatives dropped from 151 to 2.
  • 1997 - The Liberals won 155 seats while the Reform Party won just 60.
  • 2000 - The Liberals won 173 seats while the Canadian Alliance won just 66.
  • 2015 - The Liberals won 184 seats while the Conservatives won just 99.

Reference: [2]

Germany

Because of Germany's multi-party mixed-member proportional representation system, it is extremely difficult for any one party to gain a majority in the Bundestag. Thus, a landslide election occurs when a party gains close to a majority and has a large margin over its main opponent in the popular vote and are very rare.

  • 1953: The CDU/CSU received 45.2% of the popular vote and 249 seats (six shy of a majority) while the SPD received just 28.8% of the popular vote and 162 seats.[3]
  • 1957: The CDU/CSU received 50.2% of the popular vote and 277 seats (a majority of 17) while the SPD received just 31.8% of the popular vote and 181 seats.[4]
  • 2013: The CDU/CSU received 41.5% of the popular vote and 311 seats (five shy of a majority) while the SPD received just 25.7% of the popular vote and 193 seats.[5][6]

New Zealand

Before 1993, New Zealand used the traditional first-past-the-post system as in the U.K. to determine representation in its Parliament. Thus, landslide elections at that time were defined in an identical fashion, i.e. where one party got an overwhelming majority of the seats. Since 1993, New Zealand has used the mixed member proportional system as in Germany, making landslides much less likely.[7]

  • 1893 - The Liberals won 51 seats and 57.8% of the vote while the Conservatives won 13 seats and just 24.5% of the vote.[8]
  • 1899 - The Liberals won 49 seats and 52.7% of the vote while the Conservatives won 19 seats and just 36.6% of the vote.[8]
  • 1902 - The Liberals won 47 seats and 51.8% of the vote while the Conservatives won 19 seats and just 20.6% of the vote.[8]
  • 1905 - The Liberals won 58 seats and 53.1% of the vote while the Conservatives won 16 seats and just 29.7% of the vote.[8]
  • 1908 - The Liberals won 50 seats and 58.7% of the vote while the Conservatives won 26 seats and just 27.8% of the vote.[8]
  • 1919 - The Reform Party (old Conservatives) won 58 seats while the Liberals won just 21 seats.[8]
  • 1925 - The Reform Party won 55 seats while the Labour Party won just 12 seats.[8]
  • 1931 - A coaliton of the Reform Party and the United Party (old Liberals) won 51 seats while the Labour Party won just 24 seats.[8]
  • 1935 - The Labour Party won 53 seats while the National Party (merged Reform-United coalition) won just 19 seats.[8]
  • 1938 - The Labour Party won 53 seats while the National Party won just 25 seats.[8]
  • 1951 - The National Party won 50 seats while the Labour Party won just 30 seats.[8]
  • 1972 - The Labour Party won 55 seats while the National Party won just 32 seats.[8]
  • 1975 - The National Party won 55 seats while the Labour Party won just 32 seats.[8]
  • 1984 - The Labour Party won 56 seats while the National Party won just 37 seats.[8]
  • 1990 - The National Party won 67 seats while the Labour Party won just 29 seats.[8]
  • 2002 - The Labour Party won 52 seats while the National Party won just 27 seats.[9]
  • 2011 - The National Party won 59 seats while the Labour Party won just 34 seats.[10]
  • 2014 - The National Party won 60 seats while the Labour Party won just 32 seats.[11]

United Kingdom

This map shows the Conservatives landslide victory in 1983.

In UK General Elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.

Notable landslide election results:

  • 1906 General Election - Henry Campbell-Bannerman led his Liberal Party to a huge victory over Arthur Balfour's Conservative Party who lost more than half their seats, including his own seat in Manchester East, as a result of the large national swing to the Liberal Party (The 5.4% swing from the Conservatives to Liberals was at the time the highest ever achieved). The Liberal Party won 397 seats (an increase of 214) while the Conservative Party were left with 156 seats (a decrease of 246).[12][13]
  • 1945 General Election - Clement Attlee led his Labour Party to a huge victory over Winston Churchill's Conservative Party, a 12.0% swing from the Conservatives to Labour. Labour won 393 seats (an increase of 239) while the Conservative Party were left with 197 (a decrease of 190).[14]
  • 1983 General Election - Margaret Thatcher following her victory in the Falklands War won her second term in office with a landslide victory for the Conservatives gaining an overall majority of 144 by winning 397 seats (a increase of 38 seats) on 42.4% of the national vote and forcing her main opponent Michael Foot to resign after Labour won just 209 seats.
  • 1997 General Election - Tony Blair's Labour Party won 418 seats (an increase of 145) and gained an overall majority of 179 while the Conservative Party won just 165 seats (a decrease of 178). The swing from the Conservatives to Labour was 10.2% and was the biggest general election victory of the 20th Century.[15]

Scotland

2010 election results in Scotland
2010
2015 election results in Scotland
2015
A landslide victory in Scotland at the 2015 UK General Election (Scotland). The SNP (yellow) won 56 of Scotland's 59 seats; Conservatives (blue), Labour (red) and Lib Dems (orange) won just one seat each.

United States

Presidential

The map of the Electoral College in 1936 shows the scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide victory.
The map of the Electoral College in 1972 shows the scale of Richard Nixon's landslide victory.

A landslide victory in U.S. Presidential elections occurs when a candidate has an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College.

Reference:[16]

Congressional

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Gubernatorial

See also

References

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External links