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In Australia, as in the UK, the voting system is at breaking point

In 2010 Australia delivered its first hung parliament since 1940. A seemingly freak one-off, the election followed a period of unrest in the incumbent Labor Party (ALP) who had replaced their Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after just...

Posted 04 Jul 2016

A Mayor for the Bucharest of Us

Bucharest, Romania’s largest city and capital, has had a rocky four years since the 2012 local elections. The city is governed by a city-wide mayor and general council, and divided into six pizza-slice shaped sectors...

Posted 07 Jun 2016

Obvious Route for Australian Senate Reform Ignored

Interest in the Australian political system has been building over the last couple of weeks over a proposal to make some notable reforms to the electoral system for the Senate. Each of Australia’s six States...

Posted 23 Feb 2016

Canada heads to the polls

Of all the former colonies to which Britain has left behind the Westminster model of democracy perhaps none so obviously resembles the UK in its politics as Canada. Canadians have a House of Commons with...

Posted 19 Oct 2015

What is the plural of referendum? Political disengagement…

Switzerland. A land of chocolate, neutrality and a surprisingly well-armed population. Switzerland is also home to a unique democratic system, the closest to direct democracy in the world. Citizens have the ability to force two types...

Posted 15 Oct 2015

Taking advantage of the Greek electoral law

Greece will return to the polls on September 20th. This is the third nationwide poll this year, after an earlier election in January and a referendum in June. It is also the fourth general election...

Posted 21 Aug 2015

The New Zealand Flag Referendum

For many years the New Zealand flag has been the subject of much debate. Adopted when New Zealand was still a part of the British Empire, their national standard has the British flag within it....

Posted 18 Aug 2015

The Canadian Senate – A second-rate second chamber

In the current debate about Lords reform it can often be tempting to look for easy solutions which broadly keep the structure of the Lords as it is, but deal with some of its defects....

Posted 03 Aug 2015

Crossing the threshold – the Turkish election

There was a fair deal of shock in Turkey last weekend as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority, which it has enjoyed since 2002. The AKP’s dominance has been legendary since...

Posted 11 Jun 2015

‘Reinforcing’ Syriza

Much excitement in the European press today as Greece’s left-wing, Eurosceptic and anti-austerity Syriza has come two seats short of an absolute majority in the Greek parliamentary election, allowing them to form a coalition with the right-wing,...

Posted 26 Jan 2015