David Cameron faces similar internal divisions as did Harold Wilson over Europe
David Cameron’s indecisiveness on collective cabinet responsibility and the EU Referendum campaign has been widely commented upon. Alun Wyburn-Powell argues that the situation mirrors challenges that the Labour Wilson government faced in 1975 and that it also serves to underline that Conservative Party divisions are a central reason for why the referendum is happening in the first […]
Alphabetically ordered ballots make elections less fair and distort the composition of legislatures
It is relatively well known that candidates who are first on the ballot tend to enjoy a vote advantage compared to those whose names begin with letters later in the alphabet. But how much of a difference has this made to election results? In new research which analyzes the names of members of Congress from […]
The 2015 General Election was further proof that First Past the Post is not fit for purpose
The 2015 General Election produced an unexpected majority government, however it did so despite the rise of smaller parties such as the Greens and UKIP, who between them only won 2 seats, despite polling around 5 million votes. Chris Terry and Jess Garland argue that the result shows that the First Past the Post electoral […]
A new constitutional settlement for the UK would be the most fitting Magna Carta celebration
On the day of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, Andrew Blick argues that, in the realm of constitutional matters, we need to look forward as much as backward. Similar PostsAn independent Scotland may find it impossible to pursue a more liberal immigration policyUnfinished devolution has created constitutional imbalances in the UKTo appreciate the […]
The Government’s approach to “Metro Mayors” amounts to imposition rather than devolution
The newly elected Conservative majority government have made city deals and metro area devolution one of the cornerstones of their policy offer, with Greater Manchester set to get a metro mayor and others set to follow suit. John Pugh MP, in a recent Westminster Hall speech, argued that the Government’s policy threatens to ignore communities just […]
Book Review: Gendered Readings of Change: A Feminist Pragmatist Approach
In Gendered Readings of Change, the author attempts to develop a unique theory of change by drawing upon elements of both US philosophy and contemporary feminist thought. Fischer argues for the reconstruction of theories of change so that they are inclusive of women’s experiences. By analysing select Ancient Greek and pragmatist theories, the author shows […]
The government’s determination to shrink the state may make it more difficult to save the union
On Friday 5 June, the Constitution Unit and the Welsh Governance Centre jointly sponsored a conference of politicians and academics on ‘Devolution and the Future of The Union’ at the British Academy. It followed up a series of separate reports by them and by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the Institute […]
National parties have nothing to lose from a better resourced and more democratic Party of European Socialists
At the European Parliament level, political parties divide into ideological – rather than national – blocs. The second largest is the centre-left Party of European Socialists (PES). Here, Julian Priestley, a former adviser to the PES’s Martin Schulz in a piece which originally appeared on the Policy Network website, argues that the PES should become […]
Economic rather than political forces shape the pattern of lobbying at the European level
One argument frequently deployed by proponents of European reform is that the EU is particularly vulnerable to large-scale lobbying by international corporation. But what forces shape the pattern of this lobbying? Joost Berkhout argues that researchers have put too strong an emphasis on ‘political’ rather than ‘economic’ explanations for the structure of the EU business lobby […]
The 2015 General Rejection? Disaffected democrats and democratic drift
Political science and journalistic commentaries are full of woe about the abject state of modern politics and the extent of the gap that has supposedly emerged between the governors and the governed. In this context, the 7 May 2015 might have been expected to deliver a General Rejection of mainstream democratic politics but did this […]
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