The alternative vote - a forgotten option for electoral reform in Britain. Strathclyde papers on government and politics 52

Abstract

This relative neglect of the Alternative Vote is surprising. In the first place, the Alternative Vote has a respectable pedigree as an electoral reform proposal in Britain. It emerged as a serious proposal an two occasions this century when the Labour and Liberal parties were concerned about the dangers of splitting the anti-Conservative vote. Its introduction in Britain was advocated by the Royal Commission an Electoral System in 1910, and by the Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform in 1917. It came close to adoption in 1917 and 1931. On each occasion it was incorporated in a Government Bill, and received the approval of the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. Further, the specific anomaly that the Alternative Vote can remove (that of the MP elected with less than half the votes) has become much more common in Britain in the last fifteen years.