Wednesday
Sep042019
2019-26 Rights (and Wrongs) of Majority Rule
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 http://www.scirp.org/Journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=94818 has just been published in the Beijing Law Review.
Vienna TEDx Talk - October 2017
Here's the YouTube, the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 Monday
Aug192019
2019-25 A letter in the Irish Times
Monday, August 19, 2019 Sir, – The Irish and British electoral systems are very different: PR-STV (a British invention) is one of the best. First-past-the-post (FPTP) is its extreme opposite. But we both have the same decision-making system: binary voting, one of the worst.
Thursday
Jul252019
2019-24 The Latest Book
Thursday, July 25, 2019 Majority Voting as a Catalyst of Populism is due out on 22nd September.
https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783030202187
The book is based on my overland journey from Belfast to Beijing and beyond, Sept. 2017 to Sept '18, and it talks of how majority voting and binary majority rule have been part of the problem, pretty well everywhere: in conflict zones like Belfast and the Balkans; in 'stable democracies' like the UK, as in Brexit; and even in communist countries like Russia and China - after all, the very word 'bolshevik' means 'member of the majority'.
Friday
Jul052019
2019-23 Participatory Budgeting
Friday, July 5, 2019 https://pbnetwork.org.uk/what-is-democracy-anyway-why-voting-systems-matter-in-participatory-budgeting/
Tuesday
Jul022019
2019-22 The Economist; & now The Ecologist
Tuesday, July 2, 2019 Change our decision-making systems, and you change the world. It's in The Ecologist
https://theecologist.org/2019/jul/02/preferential-voting-and-political-consensus
Sunday
Jun162019
2019-21 The Economist: Open Future Festival
Sunday, June 16, 2019 5.10.2019 in Manchester, and the de Borda Institute is on the panel.
https://events.economist.com/events-conferences/emea/open-future-festival-manchester/
Thursday
May092019
2019-20 Local elections still dodgy
Thursday, May 9, 2019 The Irish News of 8th May. Our elections still fail to come up to international standards. Many...
Tuesday
May072019
2019-15 Everything on the table? An MBC?
Tuesday, May 7, 2019 Brexit: To devise a binary choice to satisfy (almost) everyone is probably impossible; drafting a multi-option referendum would be only difficult. Democratic decision-making should cater for (almost) all; therefore, in parliament or a referendum, the ballot should be multi-optional...
Tuesday
Apr232019
2019-14 Imagine, an old Brexit solution.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 JEAN-CHARLES DE BORDA, “Capitaine et Savant,” 4.5.1733 – 19.2.1799, versus the world’s first ‘DEMOCRATIC DICTATOR’. Today, 4th May, 2019, is his birthday. Imagine, if the 2011 referendum on the UK’s electoral system had been a multi-option ‘preferendum’ on five options.....
Saturday
Apr062019
2019-13 A Brexit Solution - a 'preferendum'
Saturday, April 6, 2019 At some future date, the UK should hold a multi-option ‘second’ referendum on perhaps the following five options: a) in the EU and the € zone; b) in the EU with the £; c) in a Common Market 2.0; d) in a Customs Union; e) under the WTO.
