Electoral reform in established democracies since 1980

Here's info on other "established democracies" that engaged in electoral reform - a couple of which were moves to PR:

"There have only been six major reforms between 1980 and 2010 in established democracies (New Zealand, Japan, France (twice) and Italy (twice)). In addition, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have adopted new electoral systems for their Parliaments. In 1993, New Zealand shifted from FPTP to MMP through two referendums. France changed its electoral system to a proportional system through new legislation in 1985. After a change in government in 1986, the previous voting system was restored through legislative action. Likewise Japan reformed its electoral system in 1994 through legislative change. [It dropped its Single Non-Transferable Voting (SNTV), a primitive form of district-level PR, in multi-member districts and switched to single-winner FPTP.] Electoral reform was accomplished in Italy in the 1990s through a referendum, and in 2005 through the enactment of new legislation. In Scotland and Wales, the MMP system was brought about through the devolution legislation passed by the U.K. House of Commons." from Yasmin, Dawood, The Process of Electoral Reform in Canada: Democratic and Constitutional Constraints (yorku.ca) =====================

As well, Northern Ireland in 1998 switched to using STV, Currently No. Ireland elects five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from each of 18 parliamentary constituencies.

And BC and PEi dropped its multi-member districts in 1990 and 1996 respectively, switching to uniform system of single-winner FPTP.

The State of Victoria, Australia adopted STV for the election of its Legislative Council members in 2003. Currently Victoria elects five Members from each of eight electoral regions.

========================================== There has been no electoral reform in Canada since 1996 when the last multi-member districts used anywhere in Canada in government elections were disbanded in PEI. (except that since then, shorter terms (max of four-year, not five-year terms) were more or less solidly brought in in some provinces and federally.) The last time a non-plurality system (a PR system) was used at the provincial level was in 1955 in Alberta when PR-STV was used to elect Edmonton and Calgary MLAs in 6- and 7-seat districts. Every province -- except Quebec -- used multi-member districts at one time or another, to elect all or only some of their members.

Most of the MM districts used Block Voting, where often - but not always - one party took all the district seats. The last time Block Voting was used in Canada in a provincial election was in 1986 in BC, when 34 -- about half the province's MLAs -- were elected in two-member districts. One district did elect mixed representation in this election.

PEI used multi-member districts for about a decade after its last use in BC, but there each seat was filled through a separate first past the post election contest.

Alberta and Manitoba, alone of the provinces, used PR-STV to elect some of their MLAs. They did this for 30 years, ending in the 1950s. None of these reforms followed referendums, but were simply governments passing necessary legislation. except Manitoba's dropping of PR-STV in Winnipeg (and dropping of IRV outside Winnipeg) may have followed public meetings of some sort. (Dawood's article is silent on this subject.) Five electoral reform referendums have been held in Canada in last 20 years. In one (BC 2005), a majority voted to change the system but the vote was ignored. Hopefully a Citizens Assembly is more definite, certain route toward ER than governments or referendums have been in the recent past. ============= Apparently governments were braver in the past to take the step of ER, or there was more public clamour for the change, or politicians were less self-serving, or something.

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Steps to a reform a problem existing some citizens (or independent-minded politicians) seeing the problem and articulating it government leaders seeing that the problem even exists, the government seeing the problem's seriousness and the need for change government thinking it important enough to work toward making the change government formulating a way to address the problem, perhaps being aided by citizens and perhaps going its own direction government making the change - before its attention is attracted to something else, or before a different, more pressing problem emerges, or before the problem fades or is seen to fade, or before the government loses its confidence or courage or is struck by indecision. ========= Some of these steps happen simultaneously. In 2015-2018 Canada might have gone right to the last step, and then the government lost its confidence or courage or was struck by indecision. Apart from actual institution of royal commissions on ER in the 1920s and 1930s, that seems to be the closest the federal government had ever gone in that direction since the need for electoral reform was perhaps first mentioned about 150 years ago, in Edward Blake's 1874 Aurora speech. Ed Blake's "Aurora Speech" of 1874 -- need for electoral reform and much more (montopedia.wixsite.com) so that at least was something. But definitely a missed opportunity.

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