The story
Founded by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury on Jan 16, 1884.1
History
The ERS was founded in January 1884 as the Proportional Representation Society by the polymath and politician John Lubbock. By the end of the year, the society had attracted the support of 184 Members of Parliament, split almost equally between Conservatives and Liberals. Other early members included Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll), C. P. Scott, editor of The Manchester Guardian and Thomas Hare, inventor of the Single Transferable Vote. The initial aim of the society was to have proportional representation included in the terms of the Representation of the People Act 1884 and the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23), but, despite a determined campaign of political lobbying, it was unable to do so.
A PRS pamphlet of the 1920s described the organisation's aims thus:
1. to reproduce the opinions of the electors in parliament and other public bodies in their true proportions
2. to secure the majority of electors shall rule and all other considerable minorities shall be heard
3. to give electors a wider freedom in the choice of representation
4. to give representative greater independence by freeing them from the pressure of sectional interests (perhaps party discipline and back-room deals were meant)
5. to ensure to parties representation by their ablest and most trusted members.
Alongside its sister organisation, Proportional Representation Society of Ireland, the society succeeded in getting STV introduced in local and then national elections in Ireland, and in numerous religious, educational and professional organisations. Prior to the 1920 Irish local elections, the first to use STV, the Local Government Board for Ireland secured the assistance of the PRS in educating voters on the new system.
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Following World War II, the society suffered from financial problems and a lack of public appetite for reform. When Fianna Fáil put to a referendum a proposal to revert to first-past-the-post voting twice (1959 and 1968), the society, under the leadership of Enid Lakeman, led a successful campaign to keep the STV system in Ireland.
In 1973, the STV was introduced in Northern Ireland for elections to local councils and to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, and the society and its staff were called upon to advise in the programme of education set up by the government to raise public awareness.
Interest in proportional representation revived sharply in Britain after the February 1974 general election. From then on, the society was able to secure a higher public profile for its campaigns. In 1983, the society was recognised by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a non-governmental organisation with consultative status.
2018 gender analysis
In February 2018, the ERS reported that hundreds of seats were being effectively 'reserved' by men, holding back women's representation. Their report states that 170 seats are being held by men first elected in 2005 or before – with few opportunities for women to take those seats or selections.
From Wikipedia’s article on Electoral Reform Society, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5