Electoral reform in Britain
Electoral reform is now firmly on the political agenda in 2010, though members of the coalition government will promote a disproportional electoral system rather than a proportional system as an alternative to first-past-the-post for elections to Parliament. Democratic Audit opened up debate on the choice that may confront the public in any referendum on electoral reform. This item is partially updated.
There was at the time renewed interest in electoral reform, in part stimulated by the decision in Scotland and Wales to replace first-past-the-post local elections with voting under the Single Transferable Vote (STV), a preferential system. The Constitution Unit also published a commission report on the experience of voting under proportional election in Scotland, Wales and Greater London and for the European Parliament.
There is a danger that we will be caught up in a whirlpool of media and political argument, often inspired by unspoken party advantage or interest group dogma. Much of the to-and-fro so far has been ill-informed and even hysterical. What is remarkable is that no-one so far has stood back and calmly reviewed the alternatives as a whole, examining the electoral and political effects of the different systems and the ways in which they are and may be implemented.
Democratic Audit believes that only a proportional system or a preferential system with broadly proportional results can satisfy the basic rule that elections should first of all satisfy the basic requirement that elections should be genuinely representative of people's votes; and that people should be given real choices when they come to vote. But we are not committed to any one proportional or preferential system.
We began a wide-ranging debate with the following papers:-
| David Beetham assesses the strengths and weaknesses of first-past-the-post and the various alternative systems for elections to Parliament, according to democratic criteria & contains a simple democratic check-list. |
| How Should We Vote? |
[Size 105kb/doc] |
| Helena Catt, chief executive of the Electoral Commission in New Zealand, analyses how the Mixed-Member System for parliamentary elections there has bedded down and is effect on New Zealand's politics. |
| New Zealand’s Experience with MMP (AMS) |
[Size 86kb/doc] |
| For half a century Germany has voted in elections to the German Parliament using a purer version of the Additional Member System now in use in Scotland and Wales. Robert Johns reviews its contribution to German politics and considers how it might translate to the UK. |
| AMS in Germany – and in Britain? |
[Size 79kb/doc] |
| Peter Hain advocated a switch from first-part-the-post to the Alternative Vote for general elections here. His advocacy is a sign of a trend in Labour Party thinking. Stuart Weir reviews the use of AV in elections in Australia & its likely impact in the UK. |
| See Peter Hain on re-connecting people and politics |
Over the next few months we will publish a study of the impact of AMS in Scotland and a wide-ranging review of public opinion on electoral reform in the UK. We plan then to report on the experience of AMS in Wales and of STV in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland Assembly elections.
The Audit's track record
Democratic Audit has specialised in analysis of the proportionality of UK general elections under first-past-the-post and alternative electoral systems. We measured the proportionality of the general elections of 1992 and 1997 against the proportionality that other systems would have achieved:
1. the Single Transferable Vote (as in Ireland and Senate elections in Australia);
2. the Additional Member System (AMS or MMS, as variants in Germany, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales);
3. the Alternative Vote (as in Australian general elections);
4. the Supplementary Vote (as for the London Mayor);
5. and PR List Systems (as in the UK Euro-elections and much of west Europe).
For 2001, we compared the results of the actual 1997 and 2001 general elections with the results under AV-Plus, the scheme recommended by the Jenkins Commission on Electoral Reform (for 1997, we also looked at an AMS variant of the Jenkins scheme).
In 1997, our studies showed that the Alternative Vote, the preference of both New Labour and some highly-placed Liberal Democrats, would have been even more disproportional than the existing "first-past-the-post" system. Thus we stymied a potential deal that would have distorted the wishes of voters even more severely than existing elections do.
The Audit has published expert analysis of AV-Plus, the Lib-Lab compromise electoral system, which was to have been put to the electorate as the alternative to first-past-the-post in a referendum.
You can also read:
We are currently preparing a report on experience of PR elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and for the Greater London Assembly, and also on comparable experience of STV and AMS in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand, looking at their political influence as well as electoral impact. We also hope to find funding for research into the role of the BNP in British politics.
We are always ready to receive views and information on these and other issues on which we do or should research.
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