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The Representation of the People Bill will soon give 16 and 17-year olds across the United Kingdom the right to vote in all elections. The government hopes this will engage voters at a young age, helping to build the foundations for lifelong participation in elections.
I have been in the United Kingdom for about 5 weeks now, interning with Unlock Democracy. I have learned much about the English political system and have noticed a striking number of similarities in the state of democracy in the UK, and the state of democracy in my home country, the United States.
Parliament should represent the voters – all the voters. That is impossible while an estimated 6-8 million eligible people remain missing from the electoral register, disproportionately young people, private renters and people from ethnic minority communities.
Andy Burnham has spoken repeatedly about the need for a different kind of politics. His first 100 days as Prime Minister will shape whether that promise becomes reality.
Bold promises of radical change lacked coherence, yielding disjointed and contradictory results.
Grounded Civic Representation is a democratic scrutiny system that temporarily brings experienced people from sectors such as healthcare, education, transport, engineering and other public-facing professions into government review processes.
Big money donations to political parties are doing huge damage to trust in our politics.
Trial by jury occupies a unique place in Britain's constitutional tradition. Long before the emergence of universal suffrage or representative democracy, it gave ordinary citizens a direct role in the administration of justice and, in doing so, established an enduring check on the power of the state.