Voting reform in the UK
The Guardian (London) reports on ideas for changing voting rules in the UK. The article is full of references to political science concepts. Ask your students to identify them and to evaluate the logic of the suggested reforms.This article might also offer an opportunity to review the British version of how a bill becomes a law (check out manifestoes, white papers, green papers, and draft bills).
Ministers back radical plan for voting reform
"A significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends and make it compulsory to participate is being proposed by the government to increase turnout and improve the legitimacy of the Commons.
"Ministers... hope the measures will increase the authority of MPs and reduce voter disengagement. In the 2005 general election, only 61% of those eligible participated..."When Gordon Brown came to power he promised radical reforms to restore trust in politics, but there has been little progress so far.
"The decision to examine Commons voting systems has been prompted by proposed reforms in the House of Lords, which will almost certainly be elected by a proportional voting system...
"Ministers fear that the Commons will have difficulty retaining its status as the pre-eminent legislative chamber if peers, elected by proportional voting, can claim greater authority than MPs, who are sometimes put in office by less than a third of the electorate..."
Labels: elections, legislature, legitimacy, participation, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home