An Analysis of Political Disengagement and What Can Be Done About It
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turning out An analysis of political disengagement or and what can be done about it turning off? Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie with Roger Mortimore and Mark Gill (MORI) This booklet had been published by the Electoral Reform Society as a contribution to the debate on participation in elections.The views expressed, however, are those of the authors and should not be assumed to be those of the Society. Foreword 1 Politicians of all parties have recognised the In this booklet we look at the wider problems seriousness of low turnouts in elections and of political disengagement and at practical we welcome the efforts that have been made steps which can be taken to overcome them. to encourage more people to vote. In We argue that existing programmes to particular, we commend the Government for increase turnouts through changes in how we many of the changes it has made in our vote should be developed cautiously and in a electoral arrangements and for its initiative in way that minimises the risks to the integrity of establishing the Electoral Commission with a our electoral process and we propose other remit which includes encouraging actions which should be considered. But we participation in elections. But the causes of conclude that political disengagement is a low turnout are complex: their roots are in consequence of our political culture and the the nature of our politics, national and local, nature of our political institutions, and that only and present strategies to tackle the problems a change to our voting system, rather than our through changes in how we vote do not voting methods, is likely to promote the address the underlying problems. changes that are needed. We are grateful to Roger Mortimore and Mark Gill of MORI for their contribution to this work. Their chapter which provides polling evidence on how people relate to politics provides the starting point for much of our analysis. We would like to record our thanks to Tim Pateman who has assisted us in gathering data and in drafting sections of the text, to Frances Clemson for her detailed work in checking the proofs and to Tom Carpenter for meeting a tight deadline for design work.We are also grateful to many others, including Alex Folkes and David Griffin in the Electoral Reform Society and Ben Marshall of the Electoral Commission, who have contributed ideas and comments. Responsibility for the contents of the booklet, however, is ours alone. Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie Lewis Baston is Research and Information Officer at the Electoral Reform Society and Ken Ritchie is the Society’s Chief Executive. 1. Opening paragraph of ‘Delivering democracy? The future of postal voting’, Electoral “The most important factor in improving Commission August 2004. participation is persuading voters that the election (and the political process more generally) is relevant to them and that their vote matters.That is the responsibility of politicians – of all parties, and at all levels of governance – and, arguably, the media.” The Electoral Commission1 Contents 3 5 Falling turnouts: 1 sign of a sick democracy 7 Voting and politics: 2 the public view 3 12 The roots of disengagement 17 Making voting easier: 4 the sticking plaster approach 17 Postal voting 22 E-voting 24 Providing a choice of polling stations 24 Weekend voting 26 Encouraging participation 5 26 Tackling the information gap 28 Citizenship education and engaging young people 30 Reaching minorities 33 Celebrating democracy 35 The stick and the carrot: 6 compulsory and incentive voting 35 Compulsory voting 38 Incentive voting 40 Conclusion 42 The distorting Mirror (and Mail, 7 and Express, …): Politics, the media and cynicism 45 Carriages at midnight: the end of 8 the parties? 51 It’s the voting system, stupid! 9 51 How first-past-the-post disengages electors 52 The case for electoral reform 53 The electoral system and our political culture 10 62 A programme for action 5 Introduction 1 In the 2001 general election only 3 out of Yet in 1997 we elected a new Government every 5 electors bothered to vote.The committed to reforming our democracy. In the turnout of 59% was the lowest for any run up to that year’s elections there was talk general election since 1918, and as that was a of building a ‘stakeholder democracy’ in which year when many electors were still returning people would be more involved in the from military service in Europe, the 2001 decisions that affect them.What is more, the turnout can be considered the worst on Government has delivered many of the record. For the first time since 1923 the democratic reforms it promised – devolution, number who did not vote was greater that improved electoral systems, the restoration of the number that voted for the winning party. London government and at least a start to the reform of the House of Lords. So what has Was this simply a blip – a freak result of little gone wrong? significance? Is it not just a sign that the electorate are broadly content? Are our Turnout in elections is important.We reject turnouts not just following a trend seen in the arguments of those who say that turnout most Western democracies? is not important, that we should not worry if people are indifferent about who wins Our answer to all of these questions is ‘No’. elections or simply not interested.Turnouts Certainly 2001 was an election in which the concern us, both because a reasonable turnout outcome was regarded by many as a foregone is needed to give democratic legitimacy to our conclusion; an election marked by lacklustre institutions of government and because low campaigns from the parties and providing little turnout is an indicator of a wider malaise – a in the way of distinctive choices for the voters. disengagement of many citizens from formal We will argue that these characteristics of the politics. If electors do not turn out, it is more 2001 election, as well as the turnout, indicate than likely that they have been turned off. that something is going badly wrong with our politics. And even if turnouts are falling Low turnouts must be a concern for any elsewhere, albeit not as dramatically, that democrat as they are unlikely to provide should not be a source of consolation. electors with representative government.We are critical of the electoral systems used in It is not only with general elections that we have Britain at present, and particularly of the ‘first- problems – apparent interest in other elections past-the-post’ system used to elect MPs and is even lower.Although polls suggest that the local councils. But even the best electoral Scots are happy to have their own Parliament, system can only produce a result barely half of them voted in the 2003 elections representative of those who voted – it cannot to decide who the Parliament’s members should guarantee an outcome that reflects the views be. In Wales that year, where people have been of the entire electorate.The smaller the more ambivalent about devolution, only 38% turnout, the greater the danger that we will turned out to vote in the Assembly elections. not have representative government, and the Holding local and European Parliament elections greater will be the risk that extremist parties, on the same day in 2004 might have boosted such as the BNP,can win seats. turnouts in both, but we cannot get excited about increases over the abysmal 23% turnout Low turnout is also a concern for politicians. in the 1999 Euro elections and past local Our first-past-the-post electoral system allows government elections in which turnouts are candidates to win elections with less than 50% never much above a third of the electorate. of the votes in their constituencies: in the 2001 6 Introduction Turning out or turning off An analysis of political disengagement and what can be done about it 100 % British Election Turnout General Election Scottish Parliament 90 Welsh Assembly London Mayor 80 English Local Elections European Election 70 60 50 40 30 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 general election more than half of winning Nevertheless, low turnouts are a sure sign that candidates did so.When we then consider the our democracy is not working as it should. Not number of people who actually voted, we find only are they undesirable in their own right but that only 99 MPs (15% of the total) were they indicate deeper problems of elected with the support of at least a third of disengagement: unless we get to the roots of their electorates.That hardly gives then a strong these problems, any measures to boost turnout mandate as constituency representatives. are likely to have limited success and may only hide a growing crisis in our political affairs. We accept that democracy is about more than turnouts in elections.Turnout measures the We do not pretend that there is any single or quantity of votes, but not the quality of the easy solution to these problems, but in this decisions which lead electors to vote for one booklet we consider what can be done and candidate rather than another. Moreover, it what needs to be done to breathe new life does not measure, at least directly, the into our politics.We begin, however, with a engagement between electors and politicians chapter by Roger Mortimore and Mark Gill of between elections, the extent to which citizens MORI which provides us with statistics on the can influence decisions, or the degree to which dimensions of the problems. politicians are responsive to public concerns.