DEMOCRACY DESIGN FORUM

Research is being carried out on new designs of electoral system, with the objective of achieving more stable and responsive government, especially in situations of ethnic division in the electorate.

A series of papers has been produced (see below), and further papers will shortly be available. For instance, from a UK perspective, there are papers on electoral systems designed to deal with the communal division in Northern Ireland, and on proposals for a PR electoral system that meets Tony Blair's requirements that the MP's link to a geographical constituency should be preserved, and that minor parties should not hold the balance of power.

The Democracy Design Forum has given consultancy advice for the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. It helped organise conferences, under the aegis of the Swiss foreign affairs department, the Maltese government and the Council of Europe, for politicians and academics from the newly emerging democracies.