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The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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How are the members of upper houses chosen around the world?

Many countries use a bicameral political system – meaning that they have two chambers in their parliament. These parliaments are comprised of a lower house where the government is formed and day-to-day politics is carried...

Posted 27 Jan 2022

other countries have powerful regional representatives, Britain remains the odd-one-out

Is there proportional representation in France?

Apart from the UK, France is the only other European democracy not to use some form of proportional representation for its state-wide elections (Here’s a list of voting systems used at the state-level in Europe)....

Posted 07 Mar 2019

France is the only other European democracy not to use some form of proportional representation

How will the 2017 French presidential election work?

After last year’s political whirlwind, attention has turned to 2017’s elections for evidence of further shocks. Voters are going to the polls in the Netherlands, in Germany but most attention is focused on France, whose...

Posted 13 Jan 2017

How do Conservative Party leadership elections work?

(Updated for October 2022) Historically there weren’t elections for the leader of the Conservative party, but, following the machinations surrounding the appointment of Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963, elections among the MPs were brought in,...

Posted 05 Jul 2016

Tories don’t use First Past the Post to elect their leader. It’s one rule for us and one for them