The Conservatives could govern for a long time, but it won’t be an easy ride.
Articles on Electoral reform
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Parliamentary log-jam, unwilling backbenchers and Conservative preference for first-past-the-post make reform unlikely.
With 63% of the country not voting Tory, the result throws up its own question of legitimacy.
This week the “mother of parliaments” faces a general election in the UK. The ‘first past the post’ electoral system means we can’t predict the result with certainty, nor expect it to match the vote.
There is no avoiding it – the UK’s electoral process is well past its sell-by date. In 2010 the first-past-the-post system failed to deliver a single-party majority government and it is very unlikely to…
Voters in the UK are again looking beyond the traditional two-party system and look set to put paid to a famous proposition of political science.
Students have helped solve the mystery of the million missing voters. We should thank them by giving them a reason to show up on May 7.
The NSW election will be Australia’s biggest test of electronic voting, with up to 250,000 votes set to be cast online or by phone. But many questions remain about the integrity and privacy of those votes.
The Senate is not a root cause, but part of a long list of symptoms that indicate Australia’s political system is increasingly unfit for purpose in the 21st century.
Many recent elections have ended with bitter disputes about electoral integrity. The issue is perhaps best exemplified by partisan divisions in the United States over Republican allegations of voter fraud…
Britain’s first-past-the-post system is often defended on the grounds that it enables voters to choose between alternative governments. Two qualities supposedly give it this character. First, it gives…
As counting for the Queensland state election continues, the Electoral Commission of Queensland has reported a record number of pre-poll votes. More than 200,000 Queenslanders cast their vote early. This…
Tony Fitzgerald had a point when he recently urged Queenslanders not to vote for either of the major parties in the January 31 state election. The 73-year-old, who headed Queensland’s landmark corruption…
In a first for an Australian general election, when Queenslanders head to the polls on January 31 they’ll need more than loose change for the sausage sizzle and cake stalls – they now also need to bring…
The final count for Victoria’s Legislative Council is still some days away, but it appears members elected from micro-parties will hold the balance of power in the upper house. This will be a challenge…
The Abbott government, when faced with opposition over the past year, has commonly resorted to two lifeline statements. The first is that it’s carrying out the “will of the people”. And the second is that…
The revelations concerning the sorry state of political finance in NSW continue to be aired at public hearings of the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Both the Liberal and Labor…
The Queensland government last week introduced a bill to parliament that, when passed, will make voter identification a prerequisite for casting a ballot. This is a first for Australia and follows several…
NOTE: This piece has been updated on July 2 to reflect the scheduled sittings of federal parliament. One of the most important decisions now for new prime minister Kevin Rudd is selecting the date for…
When prime minister Julia Gillard announced last month the nation would go to the polls on September 14, she made political history and caught the nation off guard. She also sparked renewed debate about…
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor in Political Science, University of South Africa
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Professor of Politics, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Constitutional Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
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Anniversary Professor of Politics, University of York
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ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney and McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
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Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde and Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Social Research
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Adjunct Professor, Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology, Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University
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