Tag: Electoral Reform
The UK’s democracy is in danger of backsliding – but current policy proposals are not the right fix
Jessica Garland from the Electoral Reform Society responds to our recent publication, The UK’s Changing Democracy, and highlights crucial areas for immediate reform, particularly in the areas of political finance and online advertising.
‘How We Vote’: British Columbia faces a complex choice about its electoral system
British Columbia’s voters face their third referendum on reforming the province’s electoral system. Christopher Stafford looks at the choices they face, and notes that the participation (or not) of undecided voters will be key to the result of this postal-vote referendum.
75 more votes in the right places – that’s all the Conservatives would have needed to govern alone
If just 75 people in the right constituencies had voted differently in the 2017 General Election, Theresa May would now have a working majority in the Commons. Chris Terry (Electoral Reform Society) examines some of the more extraordinary anomalies thrown up by the first-past-the-post system this year. In North East Fife the SNP beat the […]
Voter ID is a risky reform when 8m people are already missing from the electoral register
In a 2018 pilot, voters in a few areas will have to show some sort of identification at the polls – a major change to voting arrangements. Yet voter fraud is not widespread in the UK. Toby S James welcomes the fact the plans will be extensively piloted, but warns they will lead to more voters being turned away […]
Should we just leave the selection of the party leader to MPs?
From 1922-1980, Labour leaders were elected by MPs in a secret ballot. While there are superficially attractive reasons for the increased trend towards democratising party leadership elections, Richard Johnson questions whether it has really given us better value and proposes that we should reconsider the merits of leaving party leadership selection to Labour MPs. More […]
Failure to take into account existing institutions risks jeopardising the success of new reforms
Oliver D. Meza argues that greater attention needs to be given to existing institutional frameworks when planning reforms. Using Mexico as a case study, he highlights how attempts to improve local democracy through electoral reform have failed because the old institutional hierarchies have not been taken into account. Although well-meaning, the reforms have made decision-making costlier, less expeditious […]
Labour must make an electoral reform pact to win in 2020
Nat le Roux argues that a one-off electoral reform pact between Labour and some or all of the minor parties in 2020, with a common manifesto commitment to introduce a new voting system, would likely result in a broad-left coalition government. Otherwise Labour may spend a generation in opposition. Similar PostsGeneral election 2019: a postcode […]
The promise to change the Canadian electoral system is a bold commitment, and one that will be tough to meet
The Canadian general election last week brought to power a new government with a comfortable parliamentary majority. As in the UK general election in May, the vote/seat ratios of all parties were distorted in varying measure by the plurality vote system. Unlike in the UK, however, the winning party has promised an ambitious program of […]
The Conservatives will not ‘suspend’ the House of Lords, but neither will they reform it
The government’s plans to cut tax credits might just be threatened with a ‘fatal motion’ in the House of Lords today. Unnamed ministers have threatened peers in turn with suspension. Richard Reid explains how the Lords can get involved in statutory instruments. He argues that this is another case where peers must walk a fine line between being neither […]
The Tax Credits dispute illustrates both the need for Lords reform, and why it is unlikely to happen any time soon
The Government is currently in conflict with the House of Lords over reform of Tax Credits, with at one point the possibility of a Lords ‘shutdown’ being inflicted by the Government. Stephen Barber argues that the conflict shows precisely why the Lords needs reform, but also shows why it is unlikely to happen any time […]
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