A true democrat Today marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Rivonia trial, and the sentencing of Nelson Mandela to life imprisonment on charges of sabotage, and acting to ‘further the aims of communism’. It goes without... Posted 12 Jun 2014
North Korean elections: The veneer of democracy This weekend the North Korean ‘election’ took place. Of course, it wasn’t exactly democratic; it wasn’t really even an election. Each seat had only one candidate, and voters had the choice of voting either for... Posted 10 Mar 2014
A bold step forward for women’s representation Ireland currently ranks 87 in the world for gender representation in politics with just 15.1% of Irish parliamentarians being women. This means in the world league tables Ireland lags behind Iraq, Burkina Faso and Turkmenistan... Posted 23 Jul 2012
Electoral Reform for Eurovision? Eurovision is upon us once again with everyone’s favourite celebration of Europe’s questionable musical talent. Certain traditions will no doubt hold: certain acts will be flamboyantly silly, Britain will score badly and after it is... Posted 24 May 2012
Voter registration: lessons from the US By Dr Toby S James, Swansea University In the 1980s American academics Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, alongside the organisation Human SERVE, campaigned to make voting and registering to vote easier for citizens. At... Posted 21 May 2012
Women’s legislative recruitment: no simple explanation, no single panacea Rosie Campbell, Birkbeck University London & Sarah Childs, University of Bristol It is a widely held view that the first-past-the-post electoral system disadvantages women and that electoral reform would improve the representation of women in the UK... Posted 08 May 2012