What can the Effective Number of Parties tell us about First Past the Post?Written by Thomas Worth The results of the 2024 General Election were the most disproportional in British political history. The current Labour government was elected on just 33.7% of the vote, but took 63.2% of...Posted 19 Feb 2026
What can the UK learn from California’s Prop 50 gerrymandering plan?A high-stakes fight is underway in the United States over redrawing the constituencies for the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. One flashpoint is California’s Proposition 50, a ballot measure that passed today. Voters have...Posted 05 Nov 2025
How First Past the Post helped apartheid take hold in South AfricaSouth Africa’s history shows how an electoral system can change everything. Sometimes, democracy’s biggest dangers aren’t coups or revolutions, but the quiet impact of the rules that decide who wins power. The First Past the...Posted 14 Oct 2025
What Denmark’s Folkemødet can teach us about rebuilding trust in democracyThis summer, I visited Folkemødet, Denmark’s annual democracy festival held in the coastal town of Allinge on the island of Bornholm. It’s a place where citizens, politicians, NGOs, and businesses gather in a relaxed, open-air...Posted 01 Sep 2025
Every vote counts in the Tasmanian electionThis article is a guest post by Ralph Hall, previously Coordinator of the National Coalition for Proportional Representation, who has also held a range of other electoral system roles in both the UK and New...Posted 17 Jul 2025
First Past the Post has played havoc with Canadian federal electionsEarlier this year, we wrote about Justin Trudeau’s regret at failing to deliver electoral reform during his near decade as Canada’s Prime Minister, despite first coming to power with a manifesto commitment to end First...Posted 24 Apr 2025
Exploring the proportional outcome of Germany’s 2025 Federal electionWith around 84.5 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous country in western Europe. A German Federal election, where representatives are elected to the Bundestag (Germany’s national parliament), is therefore always an important event. From...Posted 24 Feb 2025
How Trudeau missed the opportunity for electoral reform in CanadaAt the beginning of 2025, the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced his decision to resign. He will stay in office until March 2025, when the Liberal Party selects a new leader, who will also...Posted 29 Jan 2025
Unlike the UK, Ireland’s voting system can cope with changing voter preferencesWhen Ireland goes to the polls for its general election, on Friday 29 November, it will mark over 100 years of elections using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) form of proportional representation for the Irish...Posted 28 Nov 2024
Could Trump lose the popular vote for the third time but secure a second term as President?Before the last US Presidential election, in 2020, we asked whether it was possible for Donald Trump to again lose the popular vote but win the Presidency, as he had done in 2016. Although this...Posted 05 Nov 2024