A libertarian argument for Alternative Vote


Libertarians have traditionally been sceptical of the case for electoral reform, in large part because there appears to be a relationship between high levels of public spending and the various systems of proportional (or near-proportional) representation. The big government countries of Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Holland and Norway, for example, all have proportional electoral systems, whereas relatively smaller government countries like the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand all use FPTP. It is believed that PR systems produce higher levels of public spending because of the log-rolling required to build a governing coalition after an election.

Member of the Advisory Council

Dr John Meadowcroft is a member of the Advisory Council at the Institute of Economic Affairs as well as a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London. John has taught on the Hansard Scholars Programme at the LSE and in the Department of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London.



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