{"id":2626,"date":"2019-06-05T12:56:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T12:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2626"},"modified":"2019-06-05T12:56:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T12:56:54","slug":"what-could-true-majority-rule-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2626","title":{"rendered":"What could true majority rule look like?"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"cb-itemprop\" itemprop=\"reviewBody\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democracy is\na system of majority rule, but that raises the question of what majority rule\nactually means. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last\ndecade, we have had three elections that have highlighted how the votes cast\ncan translate into seats in the House of Commons in three different ways. In\n2010, you had a hung parliament in which no one party had a majority share of\nthe popular vote or the necessary number of parliamentary seats. This resulted\nin a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition whose parties had received approximately\n59% of the votes and had around 57% of the seats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2015, the\nsystem reverted to type: the Conservative party had the largest number of MPs,\nand was able to form a majority government alone, despite not receiving a\nmajority of the votes cast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, in\n2017 no one party had a majority share of the Commons or the popular vote, but\nunlike in 2010, a minority government ended up being formed by a single party,\nhoping it could pass legislation using ad hoc majorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the\nWestminster system prior to 2010, it was typical for national vote share to be\nmagnified into a winning majority in the Commons. But this can only really work\nin a two party system where the debate is essentially about taxation and\nspending, and that world has gone. If we\u2019ve learned nothing else from Brexit,\none thing we do now understand is that parties can be united on the vast\nmajority of their programmes, but very divided on particular issues. Parties\nare like people in that regard; you will have many things in common with a\nspouse or close friend, but there will always be issues where you are far\napart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can we\nfashion an idea of true majority rule? Ideally, a government would need to be\nable to command a double majority; a majority both in the Commons and amongst\nthe electorate. One idea that I quite like is the idea of a minority government\nthat seeks to form majorities on particular measures, as often happens in\nNordic countries. But I believe the best way of finding that double majority is\nthrough reform of the House of Lords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Electoral\nreform of the House of Commons seems a lost cause, but it is possible to\nimagine an elected House of Lords, chosen on a highly proportional system. This\nnew House of Lords would not be able to deny confidence and supply to a\ngovernment, but could put a majoritarian brake on individual laws being\nproposed by the Commons. This would create an incentive to compromise with\nminority groups and I hope would create a culture of policy deliberation and\ncompromise. <\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democracy is a system of majority rule, but that raises the question of what majority rule actually means. In the last decade, we have had three elections that have highlighted how the votes cast can translate into seats in the House of Commons in three different ways. In 2010, you had a hung parliament in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":2627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1399,1405],"tags":[1617],"coauthors":[1584],"class_list":["post-2626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-elections","category-government","tag-democracy"],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/What-could-true-majority-rule-look-like-luca-upper-97759-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2626"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=2626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}