13
Nov
08

Conference reports – Day 2

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Here are the write-ups from the second day of the conference. The three panels were based around the academic papers available on the site.

Chair: Andy Williamson, Hansard Society

Panel 1 – Process

  • New methods of engagement – Graham Smith, University of Southampton
  • Challenges of multi-level governance – Tony Travers, London School of Economics
  • Teaching Democracy – James Sloam, Royal Holloway College & Ben Kisby, University of Sheffield
  • [Download]

Panel 2 – Communication and participation

  • Failing of political parties – Paul Webb, University of Sussex
  • Failings of interest group – William Maloney, University of Newcastle
  • The role of new media – Rachel Gibson, University of Manchester
  • [Download]

Panel 3 – (re)engagement

  • Levels of participation and citizen attitudes – Paul Whiteley, University of Essex
  • Bridging the gap: Revitalising politics and the politics of public expectations – Matt Flinders, University of Sheffield
  • Involving Young People – Jon Tonge, University of Liverpool
  • [Download]
12
Nov
08

Conference reports – Day 1

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Here are the informal write-ups of three of the sessions from Day 1 of the conference, they include:

06
Nov
08

Picture Gallery

By beccy83 Leave a Comment
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Refresh your memories of the conference with the Revitalising Politics picture gallery………..

06
Nov
08

Keynote speech by Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Download a copy of Hazel Blear’s keynote address here.

06
Nov
08

Keynote address by Chris Huhne MP

By edemprog 2 Comments
Categories: Paper

This is a transcript of Chris Huhne’s speech to the conference. Download full paper…

06
Nov
08

Revitalising politics: the eclipse of local government as the root of a problem

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Categories: Uncategorized

Tony Travers, London School of Economics and Political Science

The British system of government is often described as ‘centralised’. Decisions about both national and local issues are made at the core of Whitehall. This arrangement has evolved over many years, thoughit has intensified in the period since 1945. Moreover, despite widespread agreement that such a heavily centralised system is seriously imperfect, it has proved impossible to shift power away from the centre in England. Scotland and Wales provide a different narrative.

Download the full paper: Revitalising politics: the eclipse of local government as the root of a problem

05
Nov
08

British voters ‘turned off’ by media hype and cynical blogs

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Conference update

Corrosive cynicism, fuelled by politically nihilistic blogs and a retreat from dispassionate reporting, is endangering British political discourse, Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, will tell a Hansard Society conference today on growing political disengagement in Britain.

She will lambast the growth of a hermetically-sealed professional political class and call for a support network on the lines of the political women’s action group Emily’s List to help more people from ordinary careers into full-time politics.

In a hard-hitting speech, she will warn that the fall in turnouts among working class voters in some British cities is now so marked that it amounts to a reversal by stealth of 19th century reforms that spread the franchise. More…

03
Nov
08

Interest Groups and the Revitalization of Democracy: Are We Expecting Too Much?

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Paper

William Maloney, Newcastle University
The UK (and other advanced democracies) appear to be suffering from a democratic squeeze. Voter turnout, partisan consistency, partisan identification, party membership, and trust in politicians and government – all crucial to a healthy functioning democracy – are declining (see Mair, 2006). The contemporary democratic tenet is that ‘Unless citizens participate in the deliberation of public policy, and their choices structure government action, then democratic processes are meaningless (Dalton, 2008: 78). However, strengthening democratic decision-making processes is not an easy matter – most citizens are hard to motivate to engage in public-policy debates and most can find better things to do with their time.

Download the full paper: Interest Groups and the Revitalization of Democracy

28
Oct
08

New Media and the Revitalisation of Politics

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Paper

Rachel Gibson, University of Manchester

In this short response to the Hay, Stoker and Williamson paper I take up the question of how far the new media can offer a solution to the ‘anti-politics’ culture they see as emerging in Britain in recent years. While I do not share the conviction that something is quite so rotten in the British state, and take issue with some of the causes they identify for its atrophying condition, I do accept the basic premise that there has been a decline in the levels of support and popular trust in our representative institutions and elected officials in recent decades. In the main, therefore, my response speaks to a more generic issue of whether new ICTs can address some of the current democratic deficits of representative government and help to engage and/or re-engage citizens in contemporary politics. In the course of doing so I pick up on some of the particular problems of the anti-politics trend they identify in regard to parties, pressure groups and the channels of communication between citizen and MP. Can the use of digital media work to offset or even counteract the declines in performance and public trust that our key democratic bodies are encountering?

Download the full paper: New Media and the Revitalisation of Politics

26
Oct
08

Bridging the gap: Revitalising politics and the politics of public expectations

By edemprog Leave a Comment
Categories: Paper

Matt Flinders, University of Sheffield

This paper matters because it provides a distinctive account of the origins of the contemporary condition of political disengagement. It achieves this by cultivating a relatively under-nourished field of study – the politics of public expectations – and locating this analysis within the parameters of existing debates concerning public apathy with politics. This opens up a new field of analytical terrain concerning the existence of an ‘expectations gap’, a ‘performance gap’ and ‘safety-net theory’. These concepts, in turn, help us develop and sharpen the analytical traction and leverage of the notion of ‘public expectations’. This involves distinguishing between the ‘the public’s expectations of the behaviour and performance of politics’ and ‘political expectations of the behaviour and performance of the public’. Identifying this distinction, noting the iterative and dialectical relationship between these dimensions, identifying different patterns of emphasis, and locating them within the lens of economic models of democracy arguably delivers new insights about longstanding socio-political concerns .The arguments of this paper matter because they pose new questions about revitalising politics, the capacity of the state, the rationalities of political competition, and the available tools of political analysis.

Download the full paper here: Bridging the gap

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Revitalising Politics is an examination of why, given that the UK is going through a period of constitutional innovation, we lack the revitalised politics to go along with it. This website is a space for attendees and others who are interested to review, comment and expand on the position papers being presented at the conference.

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