First Past the Post has failed to give the most popular Canadian party the most seatsMinority government on 32% of the vote is one thing, but it is another when it isn’t even the most popular minority that gets to be in charge.Posted 22 Sep 2021
How do elections work in Norway?Like most European countries, Norway first adopted proportional representation in the early 20th century, with this October representing 100 years since Norwegians elected their first proportional parliament.Posted 09 Sep 2021
Barriers to entry: How do electoral thresholds work?A common feature of many Party List PR systems is an electoral threshold – a pre-set bar that parties have to reach if they want to win seats.Posted 03 Sep 2021
Which votes get transferred with the Single Transferable Vote?The first meetings of the Electoral Reform Society, then known as the Proportional Representation Society, quickly settled on the Single Transferable Vote (STV) as the best option for electoral reform.Posted 17 Aug 2021
Hare vs Droop: How to set the quota under STVThe first meetings of the Proportional Representation Society quickly attracted many leading lights of the Victorian age – including Lewis Carroll, CP Scott (editor of what is now The Guardian) and Thomas Hare (the inventor...Posted 10 Aug 2021
What is the difference between D’hondt, Sainte-Laguë and Hare?Looking at just Party List systems in western Europe, there is a lot of variation.Posted 27 Jul 2021
Political football: Italy’s party problems go beyond its voting systemIn this guest post, Dylan Difford takes a look at Italy’s political system ahead of Sunday’s showdown. While PR-elected governments are the norm in the democratic world – and often more stable than First Past...Posted 09 Jul 2021
The Two-Bloc System: Scandinavia’s Best Kept Secret?We thought we’d look at a unique aspect of Sweden, Norway and Denmark’s political cultures – the two-bloc system – and ask whether it really is able to combine the direct accountability of a two-party...Posted 23 Jun 2021
What would the party system look like if the UK had proportional representation?By looking at the experiences of similar countries and the devolved governments, we can see which kinds of party system are most probable given the sorts of voting system that are most likely to be...Posted 09 Jun 2021
What if? Post-war elections under the Single Transferable VoteThe Single Transferable Vote (STV) is one of the most popular voting systems among electoral reformers in the UK – favoured for its supposed ability to produce broadly proportional outcomes while retaining fairly localised constituencies.Posted 28 Apr 2021