WELCOME

The Electoral Reform Society seeks a better democracy – one that gives us government that reflects the diversity of society and the diversity of views within it, that maximises people’s choice of their political representatives, that holds politicians to account through competitive elections and that encourages participation by all citizens.

Politics is the way in which societies take collective decisions. In Britain, however, too many people feel alienated from formal politics. Many are concerned about the big issues that face us, but they have lost faith in ability of politics to provide solutions. Politicians are regarded with distrust, and even contempt.

To overcome these problems we need to change our political culture. That will require changes in the way we do politics. It will need more open discussion, but an end to unnecessarily adversarial, point-scoring debates we have at present. It will need a more responsible approach by the media. Citizenship education and voter information programmes must be expanded. But none of these measures will bring about the changes we need without a change in our voting system.

Our Society has been studying elections and electoral systems since 1884. We believe that the system most likely to achieve our objectives is the Single Transferable Vote (STV).

The Electoral Reform Society is an independent, voluntary organisation with members from all political parties and members who belong to none. The Society’s work includes:

Promoting the advantages of electoral reform to politicians and policy-makers and those who elect them;

Providing an information service to politicians and political commentators;

Analysing elections and publishing reports, with recommendations, on the results;

Conducting research into issues such as new methods of voting and candidate selection methods;

Encouraging the participation of young people in politics through citizenship education and other projects (through the Society’s youth wing, ‘X-change’).