Reversing our democratic decline
Many of us are worried about democracy and recent research on this topic suggests we are right to be concerned. Both current British attitudes to democracy and the trends they speak to are deeply disquieting.
In this post, I attempt to decode recent analysis to help us understand how British people feel about democracy; why we should be worried; and potential strategies to respond.
How do British people feel about our democracy?
The short answer is: Distrust; Disengagement; Division.
Distrust
In 2020, the British Social Attitudes Survey found that trust in politicians ‘fell to record, or near record, lows of 39% and 43% respectively.’
These findings were avouched by the brilliant yet devastating ‘Trust Issues’ report released by the IPPR at the end of 2021.
Trust Issues found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of British people saw politicians as merely ‘out for themselves’. This is up from only one in three (35%) in 1944 and just under half of us (48%) in 2014. It also found that the UK is one of the least trusting of our politicians compared to other countries in Europe.
And this week, Edleman released their annual trust barometer — which is one of the first comprehensive surveys conducted since ‘partygate’.
Edleman found that 60% of people feel that ‘over the past few years’ politicians have become more likely to lie and mislead the British public — up seven points from last year. They also found that 79% of Britons believe politicians are behaving in a way that undermines people’s trust in government.
Disengagement
Disengagement spans two primary concerns: a) how people feel about our current system of government and b) their capacity to get involved and make things better.
British Social Attitudes 2020 found that two in three people (66%) felt the present system of governing in Britain could be improved ‘quite a lot/a great deal’.
In 2019, the last report from the Hansard Society’s 15 year Audit of Political Engagement foreshadowed these findings. Opinions of our system of government were at their lowest point in the series, with 72% saying it needs ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ of improvement.
They also found that 47% of Britons felt ‘they have no influence at all over national decision-making’ — a new high for the series.
Edelman 2022 found that 57% of Britons feel ‘powerless as a citizen to affect change’ and just 15% agreed that ‘the political system in the UK works in my favour’.
Just last week, Carnegie Trust UK released a brilliant overview of Democratic Wellbeing. This found that ‘only 13% of the adult population of England is aware of being actively involved in decision making by governments and public service.’ And while 45% of us would like to be more involved in local decision making, only 6% currently are.
Participation in our democracy is also deeply unequal. In 2019, the Electoral Commission estimated that 9.4 million eligible voters were not registered.
Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust found that these ‘missing millions’ are ‘are predominantly younger, more likely to have been born overseas, more likely to be from a minority ethnic community, are more likely to rent their home, and are more likely to have a lower income and less education’.
Division
Evidence suggests we both see an increasingly divided politics and feel increasingly divided across the UK.
More in Common’s landmark Britain’s Choice project, which began with their 2020 report analysing democracy and division, is a fantastic resource for understanding how perceived divisions impact our democracy. They reported that 50% of Britons ‘had never seen the country so divided’ and that 60% feel ‘exhausted by the division in our politics’.
Edelman 2022 found that almost three-quarters (73%) of Britons think politicians are behaving in a way that makes society more divided. This is up nine points from last year.
And when asked about the economic system, 41% of the British public now say it works against them — a gap of 21+ points between those who believe it works in their favour. This is even more stark when compared along income lines — with those on a higher income more likely to believe it works in their favour than not, but a whopping 35 point gap in the other direction for those on a low income.
More in Common 2020 also found that 80% of Britons feel too much is decided in London.
Why should we be worried?
There are multiple reasons for this democratic decline. Divisive referendum campaigns over Scottish independence and membership of the European Union, and a global pandemic that exposed vast inequalities in our society have certainly played their part.
But alongside these fractious moments, three consistent themes stand out: first, people increasingly see a gap between their own values and the values of the political class; second, stagnating, and in some cases declining, living standards mean many people are no longer experiencing material gain from democracy; and third, people feel unable to affect change through our current systems.
The common thread here is a lack of civic power.
Stacey Abrams defines power as ‘the right to be seen, the right to be heard, the right to direct the course of history and benefit from the future.’
Engaging in democracy is the primary route we have to exercising this power. If large swathes of the population are unmotivated or unable to engage, their rights and needs will be ignored.
IPPR 2021 argues that distrust in democracy is also a key driver of populism and polarisation. As people find they have little to gain from our politics, they become more inclined to choose authoritarian approaches.
And in their 2021 Fabian pamphlet CounterCulture, Kirsty McNeill and Roger Harding examined polarisation as a deliberate political strategy. Power is captured by demonising the other, rather than by building a positive, inclusive, and achievable vision. When promised material gains fail to deliver, even deeper demonisation is required.
Distrust and division thus become a powerful political tool. As Hannah Ardent explained, when ‘the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world is destroyed’ we are left with few options but to support authoritarian leaders that claim to make sense of it.
We urgently need a counterbalance.
How can we respond?
Across the literature, four common strategies emerge.
- People need to believe in a hopeful and cohesive vision of the future and feel tangible benefit to their lives. To keep us invested, democracy must look and feel meaningful.
- Practical engagement in democracy also needs to improve, especially through voter registration and participation in elections. More equal participation in democracy can help to ensure people’s rights and needs are more equally heard.
- Our politicians should be more representative, more aligned with the common values of the British people, and more visibly accountable.
- And we need to build more genuinely inclusive social movements ‘in culture and composition’ that are rooted in the experiences of ordinary people. Pluralist movements that play to our common strengths are not only a proven way to secure change, they are also a robust way to resist deliberate political strategies to divide.
Building civic power through place-based community organising is vital to the pursuit of all four strategies.
Organising encourages us to listen to each other, build relationships, and find common cause in the pursuit of change. Opposition is part of organising, as it is about achieving change in a democracy. But organising gives communities the tools to challenge existing power structures and build winning coalitions whilst resisting polarisation as a political strategy.
Organising deploys proven strategies for change — meeting the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. By building the power of people to take action on the local issues that matter most to them, communities see genuine change as a result of their efforts. This injects both a confidence in democracy and a political acumen that not only ensures communities’ are aware of their power, but that they are able to use it.
Organising thus encourages long-term political participation and holds politicians to account. By connecting grassroots communities to politics and politicians, it both closes the gap between them and expands the pool of potential future leaders.
This builds the lasting civic power that endures beyond one policy or electoral fight.
To me, this quote from Ernesto Cortes Jr., former co-director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, perfectly encapsulates the potential:
‘Organizing means hope for people. It means making their institutions relevant. But most of all, organising means power. It means being able to do something about things they’ve been frustrated about all their lives.’
So instead of facing another decade of democratic decline, by investing in place-based community organising, we can help to build a flourishing democracy where communities work together to create coalitions, contest big ideas, and achieve change.
