Coles
House, Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 3EB, UK
Tel
01449 736223. Fax 01449 612274. Email chapman@democdesignforum.co.uk
www.democdesignforum.co.uk
DIRECTOR:
Dr David Chapman. COUNCIL MEMBERS: Nicholas Gillett, Dr Hugh Miall
CONSULTANTS:
Professor Josef Blahoz (Czechoslovakia), Professor Ian Budge,
Professor
Peter Jambrek (Slovenia), Frances Kendall (South Africa), Professor Budimir
Kosutic (Serbia),
Leon
Louw (South Africa) Professor Michael Nicholson, Professor Cedric Smith,
Professor
Boris Topornin (Russia), Dr Hugh Ward
The
Democracy Design Forum is a non profit educational association, a project of
the
Fourth
World Educational and Research Association Trust, Registered Charity No 283040,
of
which the trustees are Lord Beaumont, Sir Richard Body,
and Edward Goldsmith.
The Democracy Design Forum is a consultancy on problems of democracy, especially concerning the electoral system.
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.
The Democracy Design Forum also organises an e-mail discussion group on alternative electoral systems. An archive of papers which have so far been circulated to the group, is given below.
Papers circulated to the e-mail discussion group
New electoral systems to protect the ethnic minority
Two Electoral Systems for Westminster
Reforming the tax and benefit system to reduce unemployment
A review of Consensual Electoral Systems
The Territorial Additional-Member System (An electoral system proposed for the European Parliament and Westminster)
Papers available from the Democracy Design Forum
Condorcet election of the government party. (Paper from J. Stanyer and G. Stoker, Contemporary Political Studies 1997, volume 1, Political Studies Association 1997.)
Negotiating a compromise in Northern Ireland: the Team Referendum procedure (seeks to generate a constitution acceptable to both communities). June 1996.
A proposal for Security Council reform and for a separate UN executive: an approach to the democratisation of the UN. December 1999.
Subsidiarity and its funding: financing local government in a progressively decentralising democracy. February 1995.
Converting the European Community into a democratic federation. October 1994
Democracy Design Forum, Coles House, Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 3EB, UK
Tel [int. 44] (0)1449 736 223
Fax [int. 44] (0)1449 612 274
e-mail: chapman@democdesignforum.co.uk