Electoral Reform in the UK

According to Bagehot's editorial "1997 Revisited" published February 4th in the Economist, PM Gordon Brown is suprising the UK by beginning a push for electoral reform. Britain has, for a very long time, operated under the same electoral system as the US. "First-Past-the-Post" gives the win to whichever MP gets the most votes, and doesn't require a majority. The new voting system Brown is supporting (Alternative Voting, or AV) is the system used in Australia. In this method, people rank candidates rather than choosing one to vote for. This system ensures that the winning politician has more than 50% of the total vote.

One of the major features of AV, according to Bagehot, is that it ends up electing inoffensive candidates. Anyone who is too partisan or too controversial has virtually no chance of winning. There are a number of theories as to why Brown is supporting electoral reform right now. The most obvious is that he fears he will lose the upcoming election, and hopes a change in the rules of the game might help him. Brown might also be trying to woo the Liberals, with whom he might hope to form a coalition following the next election. The Liberal Democrats have wanted electoral reform for years. This is not the kind of system that will particularly benefit, them, however. A final, far more simple explanation is that Brown wants an AV electoral system because the conservatives don't want it. As the article states, "Sometimes the line matters more than the position it divides," and Brown is introducing this not as a debate over AV vs. FPTP but as "reform vs. the status quo."

It is the author's opinion that, regardless of why Brown wants reform, it will probably never happen. Even if a bill is pushed through the House of Commons, there is a good chance the House of Lords will delay it past the election, which Brown is slated to lose.

This article demonstrates the concept of political institutions. Changing from a FPTP system to an AV system would fundamentally change the way politicians are elected in the UK. It is also an interesting example of the UK's gradualism, and ability to reform its own institutions.

Illustration by Steve o'Brien, courtesy of the Economist

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