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It remains to be seen whether recent reforms can reverse Mexico’s decline in electoral integrity
Mexico has a chequered history when it comes to elections, with its electoral integrity occasionally coming under question. Here, Miguel Angel Lara Otaola assesses Mexico against the Perceptions of Electoral Integrity Index and analyses recent elections as well as the recent problems faced by the country from the disappearance of 43 students last year to the recent escape from prison by […]
How mainstream parties react to the rise of radical right-wing parties
Across European, the far-right has surged over recent years, as dissatisfaction with politics and the political class combines with anti-immigrant sentiment. But how do mainstream political parties – who are so frequently at the receiving end of the ire of these political movements – respond? Kyung Joon Han describes an often complicated relationship between the […]
Voters react to ethnic minority candidates in different and sometimes unexpected ways
The number of ethnic minority MPs and parliamentary candidates is on the rise – despite this, numbers are still disappointingly low, as is the case in many influential sectors in the UK. Here, Josh Zinger and Benjamin D. Farrer share research which shows that voters react to ethnic minority candidates differently depending on their own […]
Economic globalisation reduces electoral turnout
Politicians frequently pay lip-service to the forces of globalisation, and in particular they have shaped political debates around wages, housing and immigration. But what impact have these impersonal forces had on political participation? Drawing on recent research, Stephen Fisher and John Marshall argue that the impact of globalisation has been to reduce electoral turnout due to […]
Could Labour and the Liberal Democrats merge? If so, they should look to Canada for inspiration
The Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties are both currently reeling from disastrous 2015 election results, with both in the process of electing new leaders following the resignations of Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. But could the two parties, until recently at loggerheads, ever become one? Alex Marland argues that the two parties should look to […]
Europe’s hidden economy: how governments can bring undeclared work out of the shadows
The so called ‘shadow economy’ refers to work and financial transactions that take place outside of the view of public authorities. Colin C. Williams writes on the scale of this problem in Europe, noting that while the estimated size of the undeclared economy in the EU is around 18.4 per cent of GDP, it is […]
Why the UK’s pre-election polls got it so wrong: is it time to take probability sampling seriously?
One of the key stories of the UK’s general election was the extent to which pre-election polling understated the true level of Conservative support in the electorate. Oliver Heath writes that while many of the lessons have been learned from the last major polling debacle in the UK in 1992, it may be time to take […]
Party manifestos fail to offer clear commitments on the redrawing of Parliamentary boundaries
Will the rules for the redistribution of Parliamentary constituencies be changed by the next government – as recommended by a House of Commons Committee? Or will another disruptive exercise reducing the number of MPs begin within a year of the 2015 election, as currently scheduled? As Ron Johnston, David Rossiter and Charles Pattie show, there […]
While far from perfect, the work of bill committees should not be underestimated
A recent article on Democratic Audit UK by the authors of a report by the think tank Reform argued that bill committees in the House of Commons carry out inadequate scrutiny of legislation. Here, Louise Thompson responds, arguing that bill committees aren’t as ineffective as the Reform authors suggest, and questions whether their suggestion to […]
Democracy is about more than just voting
Democracy is about far more than a vote, writes Matt Flinders. It is about everyday life, it is about community engagement, it is about personal confidence and belief, it is about daring to stand up and be counted and its about the art of life and living together in the twenty-first century. Democratic politics has […]
Democratic Audit's core funding is provided by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the London School of Economics.