16 and 17 year olds were entitled to vote for the first time in any election held in the UK in the Scottish independence referendum. Advocates of the reform argued that it would help to engage younger people in the political process, setting the stage for greater engagement in democracy over future election cycles, while […]
Rather than empowering the electorate, argue Ben Wellings and Emma Vines, the EU referendum measures passed by Parliament reveal the triumph of populist politics. The Eurozone crisis framed European politics from 2010 onwards, but beyond Brussels, older challenges to European integration gathered strength. One such challenge was the intensification of populist politics, opposed to further European […]
Nat le Roux argues that a one-off electoral reform pact between Labour and some or all of the minor parties in 2020, with a common manifesto commitment to introduce a new voting system, would likely result in a broad-left coalition government. Otherwise Labour may spend a generation in opposition. Similar PostsGeneral election 2019: a postcode […]
Democracies are traditionally seen as more effective at helping the poor than non-democracies. Chingun Anderson writes that although evidence for this is convincing, there are cases where the democratic system does little to benefit lower socioeconomic groups. He argues that a possible reason for this is that higher ethnic diversity negatively affects the successful organisation […]
David Cameron is in the process of renegotiating the terms of the UK’s EU membership ahead of a referendum to be held before the end of 2017. However there remains little clarity on the precise concessions that the UK wishes to secure. Thierry Chopin outlines a proposal for a fair deal between the UK and […]
What does the recent public shaming and subsequent exoneration of Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind over accusations of ‘cash for access’ tell us about British democracy? Nothing good, certainly. But did the investigation by Channel Four and the Telegraph lift the lid on the secret world of British politics as intended? Phil Parvin suggests not, […]
The SNP under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership are sweeping all before her, and are on course to win comfortably at the Scottish Parliament elections, held next May. Jenny Morrison looks at the post-referendum increase in left-wing activity, placing it in the context of the independence movement and the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. This […]
Transparency International UK recently looked into the effectiveness of the new register of lobbyists, introduced following the 2014 Lobbying Act, and found it tells us almost nothing we didn’t know. TI-UK’s Steve Goodrich outlines the background and findings, and offers suggestions about what can be done if the UK Government is committed to increasing transparency […]
Past research has found a correlation between voting and voting again in future elections, but is there a causal link? In new research which uses Get-out-the-vote and voter eligibility cutoff data from across the US, Alexander Coppock and Donald Green find that there is such a link: voting in one election increases the likelihood of […]
Across Europe, the populist right is surging, with UKIP in the UK, Jobbik in Hungary, and the Sweden Democrats amongst others making political weather across the continent. Shane P. Singh and Kris Dunn that their success has not been fuelled by an increase in participation by people or groups with authoritarian tendencies, but instead ‘but instead […]
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