In what ways has political participation declined in the UK in a recent years? One
One sign that participation has declined in the UK is falling voter turnout. In 1979 76% of the electorate turned out to vote, whereas in 2001 it declined to 59.4%, recovering only slightly to 65.2% in 2010. Voting is an important form of political participation because it is the direct involvement of citizens in the selection of their political leaders. It’s decline is an important indicator of a fall in participation. A second indicator of falling participation is levels of party membership. In 1980 nearly 1.7 million people were members of a political party, about 4.12% of the electorate. This had declined to only 476,000 by 2008, a mere 0.95% of the population. Conservative Party membership fell from 1.2 million to 0.17 million in the same period. By joining a political party people are involved in influencing their politicians and taking part in campaigning, hence their increasing unwillingness to do so shows a significant fall in participation. Finally, an idea called partisan dealignment suggests that participation has fallen in the UK. This idea means that people increasingly identify less closely with political parties than they used to. Traditionally, many working class people, for example, got involved with and voted for Labour out of class loyalty. Such loyalty to a political party has declined significantly over the past 30 years, and suggests that fewer people are taking an interest in politics and participation.
One sign that participation has declined in the UK is falling voter turnout. In 1979 76% of the electorate turned out to vote, whereas in 2001 it declined to 59.4%, recovering only slightly to 65.2% in 2010. Voting is an important form of political participation because it is the direct involvement of citizens in the selection of their political leaders. It’s decline is an important indicator of a fall in participation. A second indicator of falling participation is levels of party membership. In 1980 nearly 1.7 million people
One sign that participation has declined in the UK is falling voter turnout. In 1979 76% of the electorate turned out to vote, whereas in 2001 it declined to 59.4%, recovering only slightly to 65.2% in 2010. Voting is an important form of political participation because it is the direct involvement of citizens in the selection of their political leaders. It’s decline is an important indicator of a fall in participation. A second indicator of falling participation is levels of party membership. In 1980 nearly 1.7 million people