Is There a Participation Crisis in the Uk
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In recent years there has been a growing concern that there is a participation crisis in the UK with falling party memberships and some of the lowest turnout on record for general elections.
Turnout at the last 3 elections has ben very poor at 65% compared to the usual 70-80% that is the average between 1945 and 1997. This is due to people being switched off by the politicians because of their conduct and the decision such as to stay in Afghanistan. The level of political participation has dropped dramatically to from the number of people going to see their MP from 16% to 13%, which is a 20% drop. This is because people dont want be involved due to the political scandals such as the Expenses scandal in 2010. This is leading to a participation in the UK
Secondly party membership has decreased hugely from 2.5 million in 1964 for the conservatives to fewer than 500 thousand today. This is because the public is less inclined to help the parties due to their disconnection with party manifesto and lack of trust. Also the party membership has gone from being larger than the largest nature organization in the 1970s to being less than a tenth of that number know. This shows how much the amount of political participation in the UK has dropped over the last 40 years. This is showing that there is a political crisis in the UK.
On the other hand the turnout in the 2010 general election was the highest sine 2001 with a rise from 59 to 61%. This is showing that people are getting back into politics after 10 years of scandal and dishonesty from politicians and government staff. This is showing that people are starting to regain trust in the government and that there is no crisis and if there was we are leaving it behind with rising turnout numbers. Also if you look at other countries turnout ours is relatively high for example at the last US election the turnout was 635 which was the highest for years so 65% isnt that low in comparison.
Secondly there are an increasing number of pressure groups in the UK leading to lower party membership especially in the younger generation. This is leading to figures showing less people involved in politics however people are involved just not in the main parties and in the main election people are worried about other issues not the election and some of the parties manifesto. This is the nature of participation changing not the level of participation changing. There are a lot of new pressure groups for things such as Britain and Europe and religion. These groups are taking people from parties and general elections and involving them in politics in a different way.
I believe that there is a political participation crisis in the UK as numbers have dropped dramatically over the past few years I think that this is because of the conduct of and the decisions that the politicians are making. Even there are arguments that try to counter this I believe that they dont