British democracy is blighted by low and unequal turnout. The last general election saw overall turnout of registered voters fall to 59.8%, and this number masks stark disparities in turnout rates on the basis of class, race, age, and housing … [Read more...] about Universal Suffrage? The problem of low and unequal turnout and the case for compulsory voting
The United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group (UKCMG), established in 2020, is made up of members with practical experience and academic knowledge of the UK constitution. Its formation was driven in part by concern about declining adherence to … [Read more...] about Constitutional Performance: An End of Parliament Review
New polling for The Constitution Society has revealed the Labour Party would remain on course to regain all Red Wall seats and could expand its overall support if it said Brexit was a mistake. The polling suggests that the Party could even win an … [Read more...] about Labour could win increased majority by turning against Brexit, new poll finds
This report examines the potential impacts of the Elections Act 2022 and the introduction of the requirement to show ID to vote in Great Britain. The importance of electoral integrity became part of the debate surrounding UK elections following the … [Read more...] about An accident waiting to happen? Voter ID in the 2023 English local elections
On 30 May 2022, the Special Purpose Committee established to consider the prospect of a larger Senedd published its report. The report's proposals are bold, calling for a 96-Member Senedd elected via a more proportional electoral system. In this … [Read more...] about Senedd reform: progress (of a sort) by Hugh Rawlings
A year ago, The Constitution Society commissioned a large-scale poll investigating how the public would respond to a formal electoral pact between the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. It predicted that at the height of the … [Read more...] about Electoral pacts and the UK constitution: an update one year on by Andrew Blick
Second Report from the United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group The second report from the UK Constitution Monitoring Group (UKCMG) covers the six-month period from 1 July to 31 December 2021. It analyses legislation, decisions and events … [Read more...] about The Constitution in Review 2
This report argues that there is an urgent case for updating the 2015 Recall Act to allow constituents to recall Members of Parliament as part of a package of wider democratic reforms. The author holds that Recall is not a magical solution … [Read more...] about Watching the Watchmen: The Growing Case for Recall Elections and Increased Accountability for MPs by Sam Goodman
Does the use of data in political campaigns threaten our democracy? In this report, co-authors Stephanie Hankey, Julianne Kerr Morrison and Ravi Naik examine the increasingly prominent role of personal data in political campaigning and the … [Read more...] about Data and Democracy in the Digital Age
