Background Reading

Seeing as it was such a lovely day today I decided to spend the afternoon doing a little bit of background reading. I went through the seven chapters dealing with the representative process that are in the fifth edition of ‘Politics UK’, edited by Bill Jones and published by Pearson Longman in 2004.

This is basically an A-level textbook so it’s not the most detailed analysis but I think it’s still a good place to start in terms of setting the context for examining whether new media can help increase participation in voting.

As I said yesterday the first thing to do is gain some understanding of why participation is declining and also why participation in certain urban and economically disadvantaged areas is particularly low.

The fact that it’s a textbook means that Politics UK doesn’t really go into the subject in enough detail to tackle these particular issues. However, it does give us some good general pointers as to why turnout in elections is declining as well as some thoughts on how these might be addressed and whether or not they represent a serious threat to democratic life.

Firstly, some thoughts on why turnout is declining. Increasing complexity of life in general means politics is now a full time profession only open to those who are devoted to it from an early age. This has reduced the variety of backgrounds for MPs making it appear less representative and more remote from voters.

The increasing complexity of society and consequent need to use more sophisticated campaigning tools including professional public relations and advertising agencies requires massive resources. This has made political parties much more dependent on business interests and increased the general suspicion that big companies or wealthy individuals have excessive influence. This book was published in 2004 so there is no reference to the current ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal which would seem to back this point up.

Television has also been singled out as a reason for declining participation. As our most predominant source of information for many years, subject to the current challenge from the internet, it has resulted in a nig squeeze on the number of words being used. Time is short on TV so items have to be dealt with quickly. People are not given enough time to explain their points and there is no time for background information. News is therefore reduced to sound bites and is contextualised according to already existent prejudices. This has made leadership figures central and the local constituency party appear irrelevant thus further increasing the apparent distance between voters and politicians. TV has also contributed to the creation of the ‘permanent campaign’ with politicians trying desperately to set the news agenda. This again has led to a certain amount of fatigue setting in among the public.

Additional problems relating to the media include the fact that it’s now a global business with a primary interest to make money. This has contributed to increasing trivialisation and focus on scandal and crime making politicians seem more corrupt and less effective than may in fact be the case. This is a particularly interesting point as the apparent openness of the internet and the possibility of engaging in direct conversation could in theory lead to a more realistic impression of what politicians get up to being created among the public.

Interestingly in Chapter 10, Bill Jones mentions the advent of digital TV as a potential problem by highlighting the fact that the company that first provides the necessary technology to be able to view digital TV will be able to control what we watch. The recent, and ongoing spat between Sky and Virgin, could be seen as the first stages of this idea coming through to fruition. Increasing commercialisation may mean more channels but it may also mean more mediocrity and less space for divergent views. This also ties in with the issues of political parties being dependent on big business with the relationship between the Murdoch empire and the Labour party under scrutiny especially in view of the current review of the former’s investment in ITV about to get underway. Anyway, the power of television and its commercialisation it seems has trivialised politics and politicians and made the entire political process appear less relevant.

The selection process of MPs and the influence of constituency parties in these selections. As local parties tend to be made up of small numbers of people the candidates end up reflecting their own narrow interests rather than that of the entire community making it difficult for local people to feel any connection with their MP.

Finally, Michael Moran in Chapter 13 makes the argument that decreasing participation in elections may not necessarily be a bad thing. Increasing levels of prosperity and education have led to many people developing more specialised interests. More and more people have also become increasingly aware of other ways in which they can affect the political process particularly through pressure groups and direct action. There is much greater awareness that you do not need to wait for an election to make your point and even politicians themselves are ever more reliant on information from special interest groups, lobbying organisations, focus groups etc in formulating policy. Democracy in the UK it can be argued is actually becoming more sophisticated and the need for voting declining. Moran also argues that we should not be too despondent about falling party memberships. He argues that membership levels in the 1950s were not a result of particular commitment but because life in the UK then was so sad that there was nothing more exciting to do than attend the local conservative party dinner dance. Nowadays we’ve got a lot more things to get involved with and if there is a particular issue which concerns us we can get involved in an organisation that deals specifically with that issue. The huge increase in membership of such organisations is a clear indication that the vast majority of people in the UK are still politically engaged.

Anyway, it looks like I’ve been droning on for a bit so I’ll shut up now and carry on tomorrow (time permitting)