Why are fewer people voting in the older democracies?
“The issue? Millions of British young people are not voting, have never voted and are unlikely to do so unless there is reversal of a downward trend in electoral participation that seems to have started 50 years ago and accelerated in the last two decades.”
Today’s “Guardian” newspaper today devotes two and a half pages to this important issue, drawing on the results of a new poll.
There is a graph which shows voter turnout by age group in the UK from 1964-2010. It is clear that participation in elections is falling and the decline becomes sharper the younger the group one examines.
As a bit of a political junkie who has never failed to vote in the 47 years years that I have been entitled to do so, I find these trends very disturbing. But I’m not sure that the Guardian/ICM poll really explains the thinking of voters.
It is easy to think that this is a peculiarly British phenomenon, explained by lack of trust in Westminster Members of Parliament because Coalition Ministers have not kept their promises or MPs have been caught fiddling their expenses.
In fact, the decline in voter participation is a longer-term and worldwide phenomenon in the older democracies. The “Economist” in its new publication “The World In 2014” has a graph showing the decline in voting from 1949-2011 in a collection of rich countries.
Voters throughout western democracies are deserting the polling booths and abandoning tradition political parties to support parties that offer simple and/or extreme solutions. Voters are blaming their actions on dishonest politicians and conniving immigrants, but I think that these are simply the visible scapegoats for something more fundamental and that affects most countries.
In brief, I think that national politicians no longer have the power to resolve alone the biggest issues concerning voters. Politicians are reluctant to admit this because it makes them look less important and voters do not always consciously realise this because it is easier to blame the disappointing politician or the dark-skinned immigrant.
Let me illustrate my thesis by looking briefly at some of the subjects that most affect voters:
Prosperity – Most voters want a job and a decent standard of living. For decades, globalisation has sucked semi-skilled work out of developed nations and transferred them to much lower-cost Asian economies and national politicians cannot control the rapaciousness of such globalisation. Since 2008, developed economies have suffered the deepest recession in voters’ lifetimes, while the sudden collapse of economic growth and the devastating impact of debt has swept over national governments like a financial tsunami.
Security – All voters want their families to be safe. Yet the impact of global terrorism means that all governments are struggling to protect their citizens against groups that are largely unseen and immensely mutable unlike the armies or insurgencies of the past. Allegedly in an effort to provide better security for its citizens, governments in the USA and UK have invaded the privacy of their own citizens and those of many other countries, so that voters are no longer sure who they can trust.
Environment – Weather patterns are becoming more erratic and no government can stop a hurricane or a drought. Most voters accept that global warming and climate change are realities, but governments individually and collectively cannot agree an effective package of measures to halt rising temperatures let own reduce them.
I don’t have easy answers to the problem of voter apathy, but some things I would suggest are:
- Politicians at all levels should be more honest about what they can and can’t control or change.
- Politicians should communicate more often and more personally with voters, using all the new technologies and techniques which are available.
- Governments should understand that tackling global problems demands global solutions which means binding international agreements.
- Voters – and the media – which influences them so much – should stop blaming our problems on vulnerable scapegoats, whether these are the poor on benefits or immigrants seeking a better life.
- Voting itself should be made much easier in the era of voting on reality television shows and 24/7 online shopping.
December 27th, 2013 at 10:34 pm
Thanks for those thoughts Roger. It’s a subject that fascinates me, probably in part because here in Australia voting is compulsory. You might find it interesting to read a 2010 article by J. Briggs and K. Celis “For and Against: Compulsory Voting in Britain and Belgium”
Soc and Pub. Pol. Rev. 4, 1, pp. 1-30. (Belgium is another country with compulsory voting).
Sadly it will always be to the advantage of an Opposition party to simplify problems and then blame the party in power. And likewise for a recently-elected Government to simplify problems and blame the previous one. The Media seems to enjoy this – it makes for exciting headlines and dramatic stories. So I don’t hold out much hope for the kind of progress you suggest.
Kind regards
Nadine
December 28th, 2013 at 12:07 am
Many thanks for your observations, Nadine.
According to Wikipedia, 22 countries have compulsory voting, although only 10 enforce it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting