Maine makes history as first state to back fair votesAs the world analyses the result of the US Presidential election, there’s one result you might have missed. On Tuesday one state made a symbolic breakthrough: Maine became the first US state to scrap First...Posted 09 Nov 2016
How Trump could win the Presidency even if he doesn’t win the most votesIt’s election day in the United States, and that means all the pageantry and spectacle one comes to expect with democracy in the world’s most powerful nation. The spectacle of a US election also reminds...Posted 08 Nov 2016
Electoral reform is making waves across the AtlanticThere’s something in the air, it seems. As I write, electoral reformers in Canada and the US have a real chance of securing a fairer voting system. As US voters prepare to pick their next...Posted 03 Nov 2016
The Return of the GerrymanderWith all the media attention focusing on the upcoming American Presidential Election, it’s easy to forget that it isn’t the only election happening on that day. Voters up and down the country will be voting...Posted 30 Oct 2016
PR across the pond: the push for fair votes in the USThis week is European Local Democracy Week 2016, and to mark it, we’re running a series of discussion articles on how to make the London Assembly more democratic. Yesterday we published our first piece in the series,...Posted 11 Oct 2016
In Australia, as in the UK, the voting system is at breaking pointIn 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 UsBucharest, 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 IgnoredInterest 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 pollsOf 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