Over the past twelve months the Democracy Matters research team, consisting of academics and campaigners, has been conducting a project on the use of citizens’ assemblies to explore complex elements of constitutional policymaking in the United Kingdom. Here, one of those campaigners, Katie Ghose, discusses the findings of the project and to act upon them. Similar […]
Is Aberystwyth, a small town in West Wales, really as Europhile as the recent YouGov polling suggests? Sarah Trotter and Nick Morgan, two PhD researchers who grew up there, returned to the town to ask locals about the prospect of a Brexit. Similar Posts
Like all forms of resistance, comedy can both shore up and legitimate existing political structures, yet it can also, in certain moments, work to encourage revision. Here, James Brassett looks specifically at the critical nature of radical British comedy by the likes of Russell Brand, Charlie Brooker, and Stewart Lee and writes that it raises […]
Edited by Gianluca Passarelli, new collection The Presidentialization of Political Parties: Organizations, Institutions and Leaders, explores why the level of party presidentialisation varies between countries, arguing that this is linked to both constitutional design and the genetic features of political parties. Although he finds that some of the country case studies provide stronger evidence for […]
Dr Kenneth Bunker considers the polls that have been fielded in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and what they tell us about the upcoming elections. He writes that while it is difficult to predict what will happen in Northern Ireland, it looks like the SNP and Labour respectively are heading for convincing wins in Scotland and […]
The electoral system for the Scottish Parliament means that candidates rejected by voters in the constituency section may still find themselves in Holyrood, courtesy of the regional lists. Malcolm Harvey suggests that those very parliamentarians may be called on to address this quirk in the system in the next session. Similar PostsAudit 2017: How democratic […]
The increasing cost of political campaigns and its impact on the electoral process are issues of paramount importance in modern democracies but higher campaign spending does not always hamper accountability, write Carlo Prato and Stephane Wolton. Drawing on recent research, they argue that when constituencies are biased towards a party, a higher campaign cost intensifies […]
A new book by Alan Renwick and Jean-Benoit Pilet examines the ‘personalisation’ of electoral systems. In this post, Alan Renwick outlines what such personalisation is, what patterns of personalisation the book identifies across European democracies, and what all of this means for the future of electoral reform in the UK. He argues that the importance […]
The Scottish Parliament election is next month, with the SNP looking set to increase their majority in the Holyrood Parliament, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats looking likely to suffer further losses following 2014’s independence referendum. Here, Sean Swan looks over the forthcoming contest, reflecting that Scotland will continue to delight psephologists owing to its […]
Astra Emir considers the impact the Trade Union Bill currently making its way through the Lords would have if it came into force. She writes that although the Bill could well limit the number and effect of strikes as the Government hopes, there may be other consequences, for example in terms of unions using leverage to escalate disputes […]
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