How are Presidents elected around Europe? 2022 is a big year for presidential elections in Europe – with the Italian, German and French presidencies all open over the next few months. Posted 05 Jan 2022
As Portugal heads to the polls – how do Portuguese elections work? Portugal is holding a snap election at the end of the month after parliament rejected the budget proposed by António Costa’s government last autumn. Posted 04 Jan 2022
Even senior MPs agree the government needs to pause and rethink the Elections Bill Earlier this week, the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs (PACAC) select committee published the final report of its inquiry into the Elections Bill. In a highly critical report, the influential committee heeded... Posted 17 Dec 2021
Does First Past the Post stop extremists getting into parliaments? If you listen to supporters of first past the post, you might be forgiven for thinking that British voters are just itching to elect dozens of far-left and far-right MPs - with PR just waiting... Posted 15 Dec 2021
The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2021 Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with readers in the year coming to a close. So if you missed them the first... Posted 13 Dec 2021
Levelling Down: First Past the Post’s impact on regional inequality Looking at just national disproportionality hides far more damning realities of how First Past the Post (FPTP) distorts the votes of the British public. Posted 07 Dec 2021
Dominic Grieve is just the latest conservative to call for a halt to the Elections Bill While the Elections Bill is not expected to return to parliament until the new year, opposition is still growing against this dangerous legislation. The most recent conservative to speak out is former Attorney General, Dominic... Posted 07 Dec 2021
We must end the link between safe seats and second jobs The most revealing type of political scandal is not the one where rules have been broken, but the ones where they haven’t. Where crisis has erupted over conduct that sits very comfortable within current parliamentary... Posted 26 Nov 2021
COP26 shows we need to democratise to decarbonise In the run up to the COP26 climate change conference, a coalition of leading democracy organisations joined together on a campaign to put strong democracy at the heart of any response. The campaign’s message was... Posted 26 Nov 2021
What is the ideal number of MPs per constituency in proportional representation? When choosing a proportional voting system, one of the most important decisions is the number of MPs each constituency elects – its ‘district magnitude. Posted 26 Nov 2021