Technologies aimed at giving citizens the power to hold their governments to account are becoming increasingly common in both developing and affluent countries a new report published by mySociety explores who uses civic technologies and why across four countries, and finds that there are significant differences between users in the US and UK compared to […]
How does academic research feed into the parliamentary process? Analysing the impact case studies of the 2014 REF, Caroline Kenny draws out potential lessons on how Parliament is currently engaging with academics, and how it might in the future. Impact case studies referring to Parliament were found in all four of the main subject panels, […]
The Prime Minister recently pledges to make university admissions ‘name-blind’, responding to statistics which showed a significant racial imbalance in terms of who is admitted to university, with obvious implications for social mobility, fairness, and access to higher education. Steven Jones argues that while this idea is in some ways sensible, it overlooks other more […]
The government’s plans to cut tax credits might just be threatened with a ‘fatal motion’ in the House of Lords today. Unnamed ministers have threatened peers in turn with suspension. Richard Reid explains how the Lords can get involved in statutory instruments. He argues that this is another case where peers must walk a fine line between being neither […]
The Government is currently in conflict with the House of Lords over reform of Tax Credits, with at one point the possibility of a Lords ‘shutdown’ being inflicted by the Government. Stephen Barber argues that the conflict shows precisely why the Lords needs reform, but also shows why it is unlikely to happen any time […]
In The End of Representative Politics, Simon Tormey challenges the assumption that politics and democracy are ‘dead’, blighted by chronic distrust of the political class and undermined by the perceived failure of representative democracy to secure social justice. As Tormey instead points towards emergent forms of ‘subterranean’ politics indicative of a ‘post-representative’ era, Ali Dadgar […]
In recent months, thousands marched in anti-austerity protests and thousands rallied in solidarity with refugees. Is the attendance of young people in such events signalling a sea change in youth political engagement, despite the low turnout in elections? Maria Grasso argues that although mass rallies put political activism in the news, empirical research shows that political […]
As the EU Referendum Bill awaits committee stage in the House of Lords, Richard Rose highlights issues that are not currently addressed in the draft bill. Questions around the turnout threshold, renegotiation process and to what extent the vote is binding government could significantly shape the outcome and implications of the referendum. Similar PostsCan we really not predict […]
A recent post by Ron Johnston, Charles Pattie and David Rossiter objected to an idea published in the IPPR Democracy Commission which suggested that the UK Boundary Commission should take a more active role in creating ‘competitive’ constituencies on the grounds that it would politicise the neutral process by which boundaries are decided. Here, the […]
Following the publication of ‘Room for a View’ by Simon Burall of Involve, the organisation asked significant voices from academia, research, and political science to respond to its arguments. Here, Graham Smith of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster briefly reflects on its lessons. Similar PostsWidespread democratic change could […]
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