Background Reading - Part Two

Anyway, where was I. Talking about the chapters in Politics UK that deal with the representative process and some general points about why participation in elections has decreased. Some of the themes raised yesterday seemed to have been echoed by John Major in his interview with The Observer which I have just posted.

Moving on from the reasons for declining participation, the Politics UK book goes on to suggest some possible solutions. These include making it physically easier to vote by holding elections over the weekend or on public holidays and increasing postal voting (something which has been done amid increasing controversy). There is also a suggestion of moving ballot boxes to more easily accessible areas such as shopping precincts.

The notion of introducing proportional representation in some form is also raised, thus making Parliament more representative of the nation. This idea has generally been rejected in the past on the basis that it leads to ineffectual and unaccountable government. Conversely though there is a much stronger tradition of consensus building in systems that operate PR potentially resulting in a greater percentage of people feeling that their views count in the legislative process. In a PR system, maybe people have less need to resort to pressure groups and direct action.

State funding for parties could also reduce their dependence on big business and wealthy individuals and therefore lead to a greater focus on the needs of ‘ordinary’ constituents.

All this basically provides a framework in which the research I intend to do can take place. It is just a general overall picture of the arguments surrounding the reasons for declining voter turnout, and whether or not it is something we should be concerned about. Clearly what matters most for the purpose of this project is whether political communication can play appositive role in reversing this trend, especially through new media technologies, or not.