News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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Early voting trails come to Wales

This week the Welsh Government announced an exciting series of pilots on flexible voting – trialling, for the first time, new ways to make it easier for Welsh voters to access the ballot box.  Since...

Posted 25 Mar 2022

An exciting development for Welsh democracy

What is a combined authority and what is a metro mayor?

Local government in England comes in many different formats, unitary, district and county councils all cover different parts of the country. In recent years, mayoral combined authorities have become an established part of the English...

Posted 24 Mar 2022

41 percent of England’s population now live in areas with some form of mayoral devolution deal

How is local government organised in England?

England’s local government can sometimes be quite confusing. The history of devolution within England is one of ad hoc, piecemeal, top-down reforms united in their lack of a clear vision. This has left different areas...

Posted 16 Mar 2022

A product of a history of ad hoc piecemeal top-down reforms

Why the Senedd needs more members

With just 60 elected members, Wales’ Parliament has long been under-resourced. But that problem has grown as Wales acquired more responsibilities – without the representatives needed to properly scrutinise legislation.  Changes to the size of...

Posted 13 Mar 2022

Investing in scrutiny will ensure that the Senedd better delivers for Wales

Duvager’s law – more guidelines than actual rules?

Wherever there are two dominant political parties, there is a steady stream of new parties hoping to break the system. Britain has had several over the years and America’s latest is the Forward Party of...

Posted 09 Mar 2022

Duverger’s Law is one of the oldest so-called ‘laws’ in political science