Abstract
On 5May 2011 electors in Britain voted in a referendum on changing the system for electing Members of Parliament from first-past-the-post (FPTP, as single-member plurality is called in the UK) to the alternative vote1 (AV – also known as “STV for single-member constituencies” and, in the US, instant run-off voting). On a 42% turnout, 32% voted in favour of change while 68% voted to retain FPTP. This paper9 is not concerned with the referendum campaigns or the outcome, but whether AV was the right option for change to offer.
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Acknowledgements
Dr Ken Ritchie was Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society (UK) from 1997 to 2010; Alessandro Gardini works with the “Yes to Fair Votes” campaign. The authors are grateful to Dan Felsenthal, David Hill, Geoffrey Goode, Colin Rosenstiel and Brian Wichmann for their comments on this paper.
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Ritchie, K., Gardini, A. (2012). Putting Paradoxes into Perspective: in Defence of the Alternative Vote. In: Felsenthal, D., Machover, M. (eds) Electoral Systems. Studies in Choice and Welfare. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20441-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20441-8_11
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