POLITICS STUDENT COVER SHEET FOR COURSEWORK

Title:

Coursework 2

First Name:

Paul Orlando

Family Name:

Fuentes Acosta

Class Name:

International Foundation in Humanities

Group:

IM Number:

IM-14-0077

Tutor Name: Dan Bromley

Student Name: Paul Orlando Fuentes Acosta
Course: Politics

Political participation today is not primarily

focussed upon parties or voting. To what extent do
you agree with this view?

The formal process and institutions of democracy (voting and parties) have been
since 1960s suffering in different manner a decline in the electorate engagement
with them. Memberships of the two main parties has fallen dramatically, while turnout
is at lower levels than decades ago. Simultaneously, some alternative forms of
political participation are gaining popularity predominantly between young people.
A decreasing percentage of electorate is getting involved with the mainstream
political parties, it is shown in their consistent fall in memberships and party activists.
In 1970, the Conservatives had around 1,230,000 members while Labour had
680,000 members, but for 2013 the numbers had decreased dramatically with less
than 134,000 for the Conservatives and 190,000 for Labour (Keen, 2015). The
reasons for this are diverse but two important are a failing to represent public
interests and a loss of trust and deference towards politicians.
First, the failing to represent public interests is associated with a clear tendency of
class and party dealignment due to the changing context of British democracy, now
there is an increasing social diversity and the socioeconomic divisions are far more
complex. Another reason for this representation failing is the policy convergence of
the main parties towards the interests of middle class, which is at present time the
most powerful group in the society (Garnett, 2007). An example of this is New
Labour, which had abandoned much of its socialist policies and rather accepted
Thatcherism legacy. As a result, it lost the support of its most left wing members, the
same happens to the Conservatives. When these strong left or right voters felt
without representation they started to look for alternatives, an opportunity that
outsider parties like the UK Independence Party (UKIP) took. UKIP membership
levels have jumped from 10,000 members in 2002 to 39,000 in 2014 attracting the

Tutor Name: Dan Bromley

Student Name: Paul Orlando Fuentes Acosta
Course: Politics

forgotten strong right wing voters. In the same way, the Scottish National Party
(SNP) has passed from 25,000 members in 2013 to 93,000 members in 2015 after
fulfilled the promised Scottish Independence Referendum.
Second, the loss of trust and deference could has its roots in unfulfilled promises.
For instance, the Liberal Democrats in 2010 campaign promised that tuition fees
were not going to increase. Then, once in power they broke this promise and their
university students supporters got angry and disappointed. Another factor is the
attitude of mass media, since the 1960s politicians were treated with less deference
and voters were encouraged to take a more critical look and judge based on
performance (Lowe & Owen, 2014).
In concert with the falling memberships also turnout have been decreasing.
Between 1922 and 1997 turnout remained above 71 %. At the 2001 general election
turnout was 59.4% (Parliament, 2013). So, low turnouts are a relatively recent
problem, and it is interesting to mention that one reason for the impressive low 2001
turnout was the public over certainty that Labour was going to win, 60 % of the
electorate thought that it was inevitable (Jones, 2003).Therefore, many people did
not bother in voting as they though their votes were not going to do any difference.
Even so, in a long-term perspective one important cause of this decline besides the
reduction of partisanship and trust is the disinterest of young people in formal
politics, in 2010 general election just 51.8 % of people between 18-24 years old did
vote while 74.7% of people aged over 65 did (Dar, 2013). An explanation could be
that older people take more serious their civic responsibilities while young people
find formal politics boring and do not feel their voice is heard, for them politicians are
too keen to lecture rather than listen (Jones, 2003). Nevertheless, since 2001 a
greater percentage of voters have attended elections, turnout in 2005 was 61.4 %
and in 2010 was 65.1%.
All that factors combined push voters to find alternative forms of political participation
which could be either individualistic, where participants act on their own or collective,
where an organisation-based cooperation is required. Individualistic forms are far
more common, according to the Citizen Audit ran in 2000 between them the most
popular are donate money to a voluntary organization with 62 %, sign a petition with
42% and boycott products for political reasons with 31% of electorate participation.

Tutor Name: Dan Bromley

Student Name: Paul Orlando Fuentes Acosta
Course: Politics

The last two have increased dramatically in recent decades (Whiteley, 2009).
Looking the statistics is clear that donate money to a voluntary organization is after
voting the second most popular way of political participation.
On the other hand, collective forms are far less common, attend a political meeting
or rally and took part in a public demonstration involve just 5% of electorate each
(Whiteley, 2009). An explanation could be the loss of community links and the sense
of social solidarity. Personal happiness, money and how well your personal life is
going are the important matters now. However, the number of members of some
pressure groups is astonish, for instance the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
have over a million members, including over 195,000 youth members as stated in its
own web page. But, from the data could be inferred that most members of these
groups just donate money and do not do anything else.
Some people prefer to support pressure groups and new social movements instead
of formal political parties, partly because are more focused; pressure groups tend to
be focused on a single issue so people could feel strongly identified. Additionally,
they represent a greater variety of interests which is something that traditional
parties are accused to do not do. As an illustration, since 2003 many voters have
expressed dissatisfaction with the political process, because both Labour and the
Conservatives have supported the war in Iraq (Garnett, 2007). In the same way,
new social movements offer as an additional incentive the transformation of the
society while all main parties argue to maintain things more or less as they already
are.
However, besides all this negative trends towards political parties, they are still the
base of the democratic system. They are essential to offer the electorate a variety of
options to choose the government from them, and they still fulfil their basic goal: a
relatively stable government without suppressing dissidents within their own ranks
(Garnett, 2007). Moreover, there is still a two party system and in the next election is
still expected that the majority party would be either Labour or the Conservatives. It
is important to mention also that these parties are actively looking for ways to renew
the appeal of the general public for them. One action taken to reach this goal is
democratization of party procedures to select candidates or policies. To give an

Tutor Name: Dan Bromley

Student Name: Paul Orlando Fuentes Acosta
Course: Politics

example, Labour leaders are now chosen by an electoral college were

parliamentary grassroots and trade unions share part of the votes.
In conclusion, voting and partisanship are in a dissimilar position. On one side,
voting is still the principal form of political participation and since 2001 election an
increasing turnout is seem. On the other side, partisanship of Labour and the
Conservatives is in a very low level and continue falling, but some outsider parties
are growing quickly. At the same time, individualistic alternative forms of participation
are increasingly popular, some of them like donate money to a voluntary organization
and sign a petition are even more popular than supporting formal parties.

Bibliography
Dar, A., 2013. http://www.parliament.uk/. [Online]
Available at: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN01467.pdf
[Accessed 22 February 2015].
Garnett, M., 2007. British political parties and democrary. Philip Allan Politics
Review, 3 February.
Jones, B., 2003. Apathy: why don't people want to vote. Philip Allan Politics Review,
4 April, pp. 23-27.
Jones, B. & Norton, P., 2011. Politics UK. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Keen, R., 2015. Membership of UK political parties, s.l.: House of Commons Library.
Lowe, C. & Owen, V., 2014. Politics. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Parliament, 2013. http://www.parliament.uk/. [Online]
Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/about/livingheritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/chartists/contemporarycontext/electiont
urnout/
[Accessed 22 February 2015].
Whiteley, P., 2009. Democracy and participation: is there a participation crisis in the
UK. Philip Allan Political Review, 1 September, pp. 2-5.

Tutor Name: Dan Bromley

Student Name: Paul Orlando Fuentes Acosta
Course: Politics