Democracy has been the backbone of British politics since the late 1600’s and has decided the country's leadership style and policies for its entirety. In the 1900’s, to know about politics and to be politically ‘involved’ was very popular. Particularly in the wake of World War II, democracy played an important role in reasserting daily life in Britain, and to keep the people in control of the government, politics was routine.
Democracy in England evolved with two (later to become three) main political groups or ‘parties’ that each had a manifesto and particular political style. These were the Labour party and the Conservative party. On the one hand, it is my opinion that the Labour Party were all for ‘Big’ government, with a large role for the state and lots of benefits for the community. I believe the Conservatives profoundly disagreed with this type of legislation and claimed that Labour party politics bred a dependence on the state that was socially unacceptable, They wanted to have a smaller role for government with more reliance on private contractors and firms. The Conservatives won the elections and stayed in power until 1994.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, it has been seen that political participation is declining, a record breaking 59% of the population of the UK voted in 2001, the lowest turnout of any general election. In 2010, only 65% of the population turned out and although this may be seen as an increase of sorts, it is still very low for British standards. The decline in political participation is mainly viewed as having come from the younger end of the spectrum as many early voters have not been inclined to vote on any particular party, if at all.
The reason behind declining politics, in my opinion, is that many young voters have become disillusioned with party politics, many claiming that either politics doesn’t work, that they don’t affect them or that they simply do not know which party to vote for as they all appear to have the same policies. For example, one reporter documented that no one could disagree with the core ‘values’ of a party because they were all benign, although the manifestos were keen to be vague about how and when these statements would come into play.
Trust in the government has declined, particularly in light of revelations involving the true use of MP’s ‘expenses’ and in the decrease of common knowledge of government workings. Many people cannot name their MP or local offices, resulting in less information being spread to the public about how party politics will affect them and their area.
Many supporters of anti-war groups and lowering student fees have been greatly disappointed when their right to protest was either usurped or was seen as ineffectual. The protests against the Iraq war of over 2 million people failed and many first time protesters have become disillusioned with the effectiveness of politics. More recently, the student fees protests against Nick Clegg and David Cameron have also failed, with the spending review of November 2010 standing firm.
Young participators began to take an interest as the policies of the Liberal Democrats caught their attention. This rise was unfortunately short-lived, due to the 'betrayal' of the student movement by Nick Clegg as he backed the exponential increase of university tuition fees put forward by the conservatives. The Independent's Poll of polls (5 January 2011) saw popularity for the Lib Dems fall to 11%.
Two sociologists, Milbrath and Goel have described the current electorate in terms of the roman gladiators, there are three groups: the ‘Gladiators,’ who participate constantly and are of a small percentage; the ‘Spectators’ who take a passing interest but generally restrict themselves to voting only and the ‘Apathetics’ who take no interest at all, do not participate and do not particularly care about the outcome. Unfortunately, the latter of these groups is growing the fastest.
I have identified a number of factors as the likely causes of dropping participation. These include:
- Ethnic Origin – Higher turnout of Jewish participators, lower turnout of Asians and Afro-Caribbean participators.
- Gender – Male voters are declining whereas female participation appears to be increasing.
- Locality – Inner-city turnout is relatively low as opposed to large towns and cities in general which appear to have a larger turnout.
- Family – A more politically involved family increases the chance that subsequent generations will participate.
- Social Class – working class participation has declined but this is said to be due to the alienation of the working class through the decline in the trade unions.
However, it is the view of some political activists that although participation may be declining in party politics, participation as a whole has not changed so much. Many people are now a part of pressure groups and the growth of environmentalism and ethical consumerism has increased with the introduction of fair-trade.
Direct Action has also become a far more common way of participating, particularly in response to student fees in 2010, when extremists occupied the conservative head office. Pressure groups have become more dominant with the acts of groups such as UK Uncut (acting against tax evasion and Arcadia Franchise leader Phillip Green) becoming much more commonplace.
In conclusion, it has become obvious that for whatever the reason, party politics are now far less popular with the younger population. In the words of Max Weber - "The State has become too small to deal with InterNational issues and yet has become too large to respond to the local issues provided by their constituency."
Mark Houghton - I am a Freelance Student working out of the South East of England, and hoping to become a successful writer in my spare time. Most ...
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