Welcome to McDougall Trust

McDougall is the independent charitable trust that promotes public understanding of electoral democracy.

McDougall Trust exists to advance knowledge and understanding of, and research into, the forms, functions and development of electoral democracy.

McDougall has developed a longstanding focus on representative institutions, voting systems and elections, whether in government at local, regional, national and international level, or in other bodies, such as political parties, companies, trade unions, community groups, charities and other voluntary organisations.

McDougall's Main Activities, through which its purposes are carried out either directly or via arrangements with others, are:

REPRESENTATION Journal of Representative Democracy is McDougall Trust's unattributed peer-reviewed journal published quarterly in association with Taylor & Francis, see: Representation | Taylor & Francis Online (tandfonline.com);

Archives and other collections : maintaining McDougall's collections of historic archives, pamphlets, books, personal correspondence and other materials on representative democracy including elections and electoral issues (this contains the Enid Lakeman electoral studies library).

In late 2023 the Trust was pleased to reach an agreement to deposit the archive collection at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. It is not currently available to the public, pending sorting and cataloguing work.

Encouraging, supporting, or providing :

research within the field of electoral democracy and the dissemination of its useful outcomes;

relevant online resources - papers and other media, including Workshop summaries and videos, plus the extensive Voting matters online resources on preferential voting systems, see: Voting matters (mcdougall.org.uk);

funding for the annual McDougall Trust Research Prize, see: McDougall Trust - Research Supported

occasional resourcing support such as grants towards projects in the fields of representative democracy and electoral studies.

McDougall's potential audiences include policy makers, legislators, election organisers, election monitors, researchers, political scientists, historians, teachers, academics, pollsters, students, reformers, campaigners, activists, journalists, commentators, leaders, members, selectors, candidates, all those in institutions and associations that aspire to democracy or use election processes, and anyone interested in how democratic societies are - or could be - governed.

McDougall Trust - Promoting public understanding of electoral democracy.

McDougall Trust is independently run and funded. It welcomes legacies and other donations in support of its charitable work.

Charity No. 212151 (Registered as Arthur McDougall Fund)

www.mcdougall.org.uk

contact@mcdougall.org.uk

News ...

21 Jul 2026

McDougall Trust Appoints 3 New Trustees

McDougall Trust is pleased to announce the appointment to its board of Dr Sarah Birch, Dr Jay O'Connor and Michela Palese.

Chair of Trustees, Derek McAuley said of the appointments:

“I am pleased to announce a further strengthening of the Board of the McDougall Trust with the appointment of three new trustees; Dr Sarah Birch Dr Jay O'Connor and Michela Palese. They bring a wealth of academic and professional experience to the Board and their wish to serve in a voluntary capacity is a sign of growing confidence in the future health of the Trust. As a board we will be working to develop a new strategy with their keen involvement. The Trust undertook a transparent and open appointment process and had to choose from a high-quality set of applicants."

Dr Sarah Birch is a Professor of Political Science at King’s College London. Her current research focuses on adapting elections and other democratic institutions to climate change.

Dr Jay O'Connor brings together academic research on democratic governance and accountability with specialist practice in public engagement and communications. With a PhD in Political Science, she advises organisations on building stakeholder relationships, strengthening governance frameworks, and communicating in ways that foster understanding.

Michela Palese is a Policy Manager at the Electoral Commission, leading their work on electoral administration and political finance. She previously worked at the Electoral Reform Society and the UCL Constitution Unit, where she co-authored Doing Democracy Better with Professor Alan Renwick, a major report on improving the quality of information and debate during UK election and referendum campaigns.

McDougall's occasional blog

The 2024 UK General Election: Results, Issues and a Commentary regarding Electoral Democracy

By: Tom Walsh

Less a Landslide than Implosion and Fragmentation

Contrary to many comments it’s not so much a Labour landslide (e.g. The Guardian headline on 5 July: “Labour landslide”) but more an implosion of the Conservative vote combined with fragmentation of parties. Thus, Labour won 63% of all seats i.e. almost double their 34% of the vote while turnout was modest at 60%, in fact down nearly 7% on 2019.Conversely the Conservative vote share at 24% exceeded their share of seats (19%) by 5% yet it almost halved from 43% of the vote in 2019 to 24% this year.

REPRESENTATION
Journal of Representative Democracy

McDougall Trust's quarterly journal published in association with Taylor & Francis

Support for Research and Information Dissemination, including grant making

McDougall Trust encourages research and information dissemination in the field of electoral democracy.

See activities supported by McDougall Trust grant making.

McDougall Trust