Democratic Audit are carrying out an audit of democracy and ask:
What does democracy require for an electoral system?
- It should accurately translate parties’ votes into seats in the legislature (e.g. Parliament)
- In a way that is recognized as legitimate by most citizen (ideally almost all of them).
- No substantial part of the population should regard the result as illegitimate, nor suffer a consistent bias of the system ‘working against them’.
- If possible, the system should have beneficial effects for the good governance of the country.
- If possible, the voting system should enhance the social representativeness of the legislature, and encourage high levels of voting across all types of citizens.
How democratic are the reformed electoral systems used in mayoral and devolved elections? Democratic Audit UK, 18 January 2016
It then applies these criteria to its audit of the AMS system used in the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and London Assemblies.
I take issue with two of these criteria – which are fundamental to the examination of the Additional Member System (AMS). Continue reading