Elections and electoral systems
Heads or Tails? How leaving the selection of public offices to chance could revitalise democracy
Representative democracy has come under severe criticism lately, with a number of commentators pointing at the way it restrains public participation. In this blog post, Romance Porrot seeks to explore the way in which sortition – i.e. drawing lots in politics – is increasingly called upon to reshape the political arena and empower ordinary citizens. […]
What does ‘Brexit means Brexit’ actually mean?
Theresa May has famously stated that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, but what does this actually mean (if anything)? Sionaidh Douglas-Scott examines the legal implications of triggering Art. 50. The position of referendums in UK constitutional law is very hazy, she notes, and previous UK-EU negotiations on crucial matters have often been shrouded in secrecy, with the […]
Brexit should be a wake up call in the fight against inequality
In the UK’s Brexit referendum, income inequality and poverty boosted ‘leave’ votes, in addition to geographical differences and larger shares of uneducated and older people in UK regions, according to regression analyses carried out by Zsolt Darvas. The study points at a key lesson politicians all over the world can learn from the referendum: high inequality and poverty undermine […]
Is there a future for referendums?
The EU referendum has led to doubts about referendums as an instrument of public policy. Albert Weale suggests that the good conduct of referendums depends on the question being clear and voters having easy access to the relevant evidence. The EU referendum failed both of these tests. Future referendums should be on well-defined questions and steps should […]
The Brexit paradox: Direct democracy is a flawed route to reviving sovereignty
Rhetoric around parliamentary sovereignty and “taking back control” became a recurring theme in the Leave Campaign. But Panagiotis Doudonis argues that there is a contradiction in using a referendum – a coercive, direct democracy device – to reclaim parliamentary sovereignty, which has its foundations in representative democracy. Similar PostsLong Read: Brexit, the Referendum and the […]
Theresa May has two clear options on Brexit – neither of them easy
David Cameron resign as British Prime Minister yesterday, with Theresa May taking over following her victory in the Conservative Party leadership contest. Gavin Barrett writes that the new Prime Minister will be faced with an exceptional challenge in handling the fallout from the EU referendum. He suggests that any attempt to rerun the vote would […]
Theresa May replaces David Cameron – but will there be an early General Election?
Theresa May will today become the Prime Minister, following the decision of Andrea Leadsom to abandon her campaign. Here, Sean Swan looks at the possibility that this change of leadership could bring an early general election, and argues that it is unlikely to benefit the main parties and is thus unlikely to happen. Similar PostsDesperate times […]
Why there should be a general election before Article 50 is triggered
The Conservative Party is currently selecting a new leader who is expected to trigger Article 50 and begin the process of the UK leaving the European Union. Kenneth Armstrong writes that as the UK will need to set out what sort of new relationship it wants with the EU, there is a clear case for an […]
The spread of communications technology may facilitate increases in levels of anti-government violence
Communications technology has developed at an almost bewildering pace since the development of the internet, with first mobiles and then smartphones ensuring that we are in near constant contact with our peers. But what impact has this had on violence, and more specifically anti-government violence. Blake E. Garcia and Cameron Wimpy argue that there is […]
Governments should consider the consequences when they decide whether to adopt Internet voting
It sometimes seems to be a matter of when, and not if, online and remote voting will become available across advanced democracies. A combination of loyalty to the traditional model of voting that is generally still used, and concerns about privacy and security continue to hold back its wider application – despite successful trials in […]
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