Political Participation in the UK

Question 1

What is political participation?

Answer 1

The ways in which individuals engage in the political process.

Question 2

What is the most intensive form of political participation?

Answer 2

Standing for public office

Question 3

How can you actively participate in a political party?

Answer 3

By being a member

Question 4

What group other than a party can you be a member of?

Answer 4

Pressure group

Question 5

What form of participation is becoming increasingly popular with the growth of social media?

Answer 5

Digital activists
E-petitions etc

Question 6

What is the least intensive form of participation?

Answer 6

Voting

Question 7

Why is participation important?

Answer 7

high levels of political participation in political processes are essential to a healthy democracy.
If citizens are passive and do not concern themselves with politics, the system
becomes open to the abuse of power.
Popular political participation helps to call decision makers to account and to ensure that they carry out their representative functions.

Question 8

In the 50s how many people were members of a political party?

Answer 8

over 3 million, mostly Conservatives

Question 9

Why was there a surge in LP members?

Answer 9

2015 Ed Miliband said it was possible to join the party for just three pounds. This was to enable a wider section of Labour supporters to vote in leadership contests. A largely young, new cohort in the Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn and changed the whole direction of the party (a lurch to the left).

Question 10

How many members did UKIP have in the run up to 2015 election?

Answer 10

Nearly 50,000 had signed up to the party by the time of the election, making UKIP the fourth largest party by the time of the election in terms of membership

Question 11

What has turnout varied from?

Answer 11

34.1% concerning local government in
London to 84.6% in the Scottish independence referendum

Question 12

What is E-democracy?

Answer 12

A name used to describe the growing tendency for democracy to be carried out online in the form of epetitions and other online campaigns.

Question 13

Why are E-petitions good?

Answer 13

requiring little effort and it is immediately apparent how much support a particular issue may have.
Combined with the use of social media, they can build interest in an issue rapidly, causing a bandwagon effect.

Question 14

Why are E-petitions criticized?

Answer 14

requires so little effort to take part and there is no guarantee that participants know much about the issue.
* However they are becoming an established part of modern democracy
and do have some influence

Question 15

How many signatures did 2016 petition for a second election get?

Answer 15

3.8m

Question 16

What was the outcome of the 2016 petition?

Answer 16

A parliamentary debate was held on the issue but a second referendum was not
allowed.

Question 17

What has political activism been taken over by?

Answer 17

Participation in pressure groups

Question 18

What is the importance of the media and political participation?

Answer 18

importance of blogging, tweeting and general social media campaigning is growing. A campaign on a current issue can be mounted in just a few hours or days.
* Information about injustices or demands for immediate action over some kind of social evil can circulate quickly, putting pressure on decision makers and elected representatives.

Question 19

What do 38 degrees do?

Answer 19

Give people opportunity to sign petitions
“Strip MPs of their Fuel Allowance” has over 100,000 signatures

Question 20

Do the public trust MPs?

Answer 20

Over the years MP’s have not lived up to high standards
In 2016 Ipsos MORI recorded that the least trusted profession in the UK was politician with 21% of the population believing politicians could be relied on to tell the truth.

Question 21

Why is being apathetic dangerous?

Answer 21

This is a dangerous argument because it suggests a government should be most satisfied with zero electoral turnout, which would give it no mandate to govern!

Question 22

What does legitimacy mean?

Answer 22

Legitimate authority means power that has been legally acquired and is exercised according to the rule of law. A dictator can claim power but not legitimate power.

Question 23

What was turnout like in 2017?

Answer 23

2017 general election was highly adversarial but only 68.7% of the public voted

Question 24

Why is legitimacy reduced?

Answer 24

Low turnout in elections

Question 25

How did turnout in 2024 compare to 1992?

Answer 25

2024 was 59.7% whereas 1992 was 77.7%

Question 26

Advantage of direct democracy?

Answer 26

Supporters of direct democracy argue that it engages the public and makes politicians more responsive to what people really think.
* This creates a closer connection between the public and political decision
making.

Question 27

Disadvantages of direct democracy?

Answer 27

Critics of direct democracy respond that the general public are not always sufficiently well informed to make specific political decisions and that direct democracy gives too much influence to political activists who can be more extreme in their political views than the average voter.
* The way in which the 2016 EU referendum created conflict between the wishes of a majority of the public and those parliament also suggests that direct democracy can have a destabilizing effect on the political process.

Question 28

What is a participation crisis?

Answer 28

A point at which the public has become
disengaged from politics and voting levels
have fallen so low that the legitimacy of
elected governments can be questioned.

Question 29

What is an example of an election with a high turnout?

Answer 29

1979- Margaret Thatcher challenging James Callaghan in the wake of the ‘Winter of Discontent’
76% turnout

Question 30

Is party membership an issue?

Answer 30

Significantly lower than the 1950s
However this does not indicate a participation crisis, since floating voters are
increasingly unlikely to fully identify with one party and therefore have little motivation to join one

Question 31

How did LP increase membership?

Answer 31

190,000 to 552,00 between 2014 and 2018. This was brought about by the ‘one member, one vote’ idea from former
leader Ed Miliband and grassroots enthusiasm for the radical alternative offered by Jeremy Corbyn.

Question 32

What is a democratic deficit?

Answer 32

When a democracy is not operating effectively because there is a lack of accountability among political bodies and not all citizens can claim equal influence over political decision making.

Question 33

What idea has been encouraged to encourage greater democratic participation?

Answer 33

Further devolution
more power should be devolved from Westminster, thereby giving people
greater self determination.
* The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and elected mayors
show how decision making can be brought closer to the public.
* However turnout in elections for devolved assemblies is significantly lower than for the Westminster Parliament and has declined since they were established.

Question 34

What was the turnout for Scottish parliament in 2016?

Answer 34

55.6%

Question 35

What does little enthusiasm for devolved assemblies suggest?

Answer 35

when in 2004 voters in the North East were given the opportunity for their own assembly 78% voted against it
Creating further levels of government is not an instant solution to encouraging greater voter participation.
giving the public more voting opportunities can discourage participation by leading to democratic overload.

Question 36

What was turnout for 2019 North of Tyne mayoral election?

Answer 36

32.3%

Question 37

What is the power of recall?

Answer 37

The Recall of MPs Act 2015 enables voters to trigger a by-election if 10% of them sign a petition. However, the circumstances when this can happen- an MP needs to have been sentenced to prison or suspended from the House of Commons for at least 21 days- are quite extreme

Question 38

What is a strength to the power of recall?

Answer 38

Holds MPs accountable and gives people some political power

Question 39

What is a weakness to the power of recall?

Answer 39

it would make MPs more like delegates. So limiting the Burkean principle of freedom of conscience. It would also make governments with slim majorities more likely to fail.

Question 40

Should the HoL be reformed?

Answer 40

unelected and unaccountable. Its membership is selected through political patronage.
When he left office in 2016 David Cameron appointed 13 peers from among his political allies.

Question 41

What is an advantage to a reformed HoL?

Answer 41

Making the Lords an elected chamber would mean that Westminster was fully democratically accountable.

Question 42

What is a disadvantage to a reformed HoL?

Answer 42

there is the danger that an elected Lords could become a rival to the Commons potentially creating constitutional gridlock.

Given concerns about low electoral turnout, exchanging the expertise of the
Lords for another elected chamber is controversial.

Question 43

Why could digital democracy be good?

Answer 43

Supporters of digital democracy argue that facilitating voting and encouraging
electronic political discussion will encourage greater political engagement and higher turnout

Question 44

Why is digital democracy problematic?

Answer 44

1. Voting on your mobile phone would mean that voting was no longer carried out in secret and so the possibility of voter manipulation would increase.
2. Allegations of cyber interference in Western elections by Russia indicates that
   electronic voting is more open to fraud than traditional voting.
3. The way in which politicians use Twitter can encourage populist sloganeering.

Question 45

What are advantages to E-petitions?

Answer 45

gives the public more control over what is discussed in parliament.
* E-petitions have led to important debates- e.g. the legalisation of cannabis, the
extension of meningitis B vaccination for all children.
* Making e-petitions more powerful, by making them trigger a parliamentary vote,
would make Parliament more accountable.

Question 46

What are disadvantages to E-petitions?

Answer 46

could bog Westminster down in unconstitutional and impractical debates, e.g. some of the most popular e-petitions have called for the banning of Donald Trump
from the UK, which is not parliament’s right since the responsibility lies with the
home secretary.
* In 2019 an e-petition called on the UK to stay in the EU gathered over 6m signatures, making it the most popular e-petition since the process was introduced. This clearly demonstrated to Parliament how controversial the issue of Brexit remained.

Question 47

Arguments for a reform of the electoral system

Answer 47

a proportional form of election would create a fairer connection between the votes a party receives and its representation in parliament.
* Critics of the FPTP system claim that it discourages voting because it limits voter
choice by over-rewarding jthe Labour and Conservative parties, ensuring that it is
much more difficult for other parties to gain representation.
* By making votes count more, critics argue, ‘wasted votes’ and ‘safe seats’ would be
eliminated and voters would have a greater incentive to vote.

Question 48

Arguments against a reform of the electoral system

Answer 48

2011, 67.9% of the electorate voted in favour of not replacing FPTP with the additional vote (AV).
* Proportional representation would make coalition governments more likely, making
it more difficult for political parties to fulfil their manifesto commitments.
* The claim that FPTP is no longer appropriate because the UK is becoming a
multiparty democracy is challenged by the fact that in the 2017 general election the
highest percentage of the electorate voted Conservative or Labour than at any time since 1970.