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Chapter four: What people think and do about politics
- ‘Threat or Corrective? Assessing the Impact of Populist Parties in Government on the Qualities of Democracy: A 19-Country Comparison’
This article by Cambridge Core touches on the theme of populism and what it means for a democracy. This article shows that populist parties in government negatively affect all qualities of democracy under analysis. What’s great about this article is that it compares cases in 19 countries which places the UK in a comparative international framework which goes beyond what is touched upon in chapter four.
- ‘What’s behind the Conservative victory’
This article touches on how Boris Johnson won a decisive majority based on the fact that many traditional labour voters switched to voting for the Conservatives. This is interesting as it questions whether class remains a predictor when voting. Perhaps Brexit stance is becoming a better predictor of vote choice.
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/whats-behind-the-conservative-victory/#
- ‘The Dimensions and Impact of Political Discontent in Britain’
Political discontent, voter apathy, mistrust in government and a rise in anti-politics are all pressing issues which question the future of UK parliamentary democracy. This article offers a range of theoretical perspective regarding how such issues can be better understood. The article finds that political discontent takes many forms which vary across social groups. While discontent with mainstream politics takes away support from the main political parties, it can drive up support for populist/smaller parties such as UKIP.
https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/69/4/876/2468902
- ‘Why Britain Voted for Brexit: An Individual-Level Analysis of the 2016 Referendum Vote’
Investigating what shaped the decision of voters during the 2016 referendum, this article uses a multivariate model to assess how voters cast their ballots in the EU referendum. This article finds that cost-benefit analysis, emotional factors and leader image heuristics were prominent driving forces behind voter choice. National identities were also found to play a major part, which link directly to the themes discussed in chapter four. This article is very interesting because it suggests that had one of these factors changed, so would the referendum outcome, since the vote was so close.
https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/70/3/439/3109029
- ‘Policy Alienation, Social Alienation and Working-Class Abstention in Britain, 1964–2010’
This article looks at turnout and examines which classes are not being represented as a result of their lack of turnout. The class divide in turnout creates inequalities that have become bigger with time. This article offers three hypotheses as to how these inequalities permeate the political network from policy inequalities, policy alienation and social alienation. One interesting finding from this article that ties nicely with chapter four’s exploration of class is that the decline MPs from working-class backgrounds is associated with increasing abstention of working-class voters.