Elections & Parties

The Unit helped to make the case for the establishment of the Electoral Commission in 2000, and has worked with the Commission and equivalent bodies overseas. Our main research interest has been to learn lessons from the new voting systems introduced in the UK, which we did primarily by establishing the Independent Commission on PR (jointly chaired by Peter Riddell and David Butler), which reported in 2004. Ben Seyd has done research on one of the main consequences of PR, which is the greater likelihood of coalition or minority government. And Meg Russell did research on how to increase women’s representation, which led to the passage of the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002.

Projects | Publications | Monitor Articles | Events

Research Projects

Past projects include:

Independent Commission on Proportional Representation (2002)
Lessons on voting reform from Britain’s first PR elections (2001)
Legitimacy, Participation and Constitutional Change (2000)
Coalition Governments: Lessons from Overseas (2000)
Women's Representation in Politics (1999)

Publications

All Constitution Unit publications: Elections and Parties
Chapters on Electoral and Party Systems in Constitutional Futures Revisited (November 2008)

Monitor Articles

Monitor 28 (September 2004) Voters want choice in voting methods
Monitor 26 (March 2004) Voting Systems all up for Review
Monitor 20 (August 2002) PR Commission

Events

Seminar: Parties in the pawnshop: the future of party and election finance Sam Younger, Chairman The Electoral Commission (February 2007)

This page last modified 4 September, 2009 by v.spence@ucl.ac.uk