Informing and engaging citizens
Aberystwyth et son amour: talking to locals in the UK’s most Europhile town
Is Aberystwyth, a small town in West Wales, really as Europhile as the recent YouGov polling suggests? Sarah Trotter and Nick Morgan, two PhD researchers who grew up there, returned to the town to ask locals about the prospect of a Brexit. Similar Posts
Satire is (un)dead: How comedy became a language of democratic politics
Like all forms of resistance, comedy can both shore up and legitimate existing political structures, yet it can also, in certain moments, work to encourage revision. Here, James Brassett looks specifically at the critical nature of radical British comedy by the likes of Russell Brand, Charlie Brooker, and Stewart Lee and writes that it raises […]
What do the latest polls tell us about the elections in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales?
Dr Kenneth Bunker considers the polls that have been fielded in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and what they tell us about the upcoming elections. He writes that while it is difficult to predict what will happen in Northern Ireland, it looks like the SNP and Labour respectively are heading for convincing wins in Scotland and […]
Scotland will continue to be a psephologist’s delight for the foreseeable future
The Scottish Parliament election is next month, with the SNP looking set to increase their majority in the Holyrood Parliament, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats looking likely to suffer further losses following 2014’s independence referendum. Here, Sean Swan looks over the forthcoming contest, reflecting that Scotland will continue to delight psephologists owing to its […]
The Trade Union Bill 2016 and its likely effect on strike action
Astra Emir considers the impact the Trade Union Bill currently making its way through the Lords would have if it came into force. She writes that although the Bill could well limit the number and effect of strikes as the Government hopes, there may be other consequences, for example in terms of unions using leverage to escalate disputes […]
What does the new Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act mean for the voluntary sector?
The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 was passed this year, and introduced a range of measures including the empowerment of the Charities Commission to ‘crack down’ on potential abuses of the sector from financial abuses. Here, Nicole Bolleyer and Anika Gauja look at the practical impact of the legislation, and ask what the […]
Don’t knock clicktivism: it represents the political participation aspirations of the modern citizen
We are surrounded by simple online participatory processes asking for our opinions through one-click online petitions, content sharing, and social buttons. Max Halupka discusses his article Clicktivism: A Systematic Heuristic, which emphasises that this so-called “clicktivism” is a legitimate political act. However, he argues that these acts have been largely marginalised in the mainstream political science […]
Could Corbyn win an election by mobilising non-voters? Not if he doesn’t win over Conservative supporters too
Less than a year after the election, average polls suggest that Labour continue to poll at about the same level or worse than the 2015 result. Anthony McDonnell writes that this is worrying for the Left, as previous trends indicate their poll numbers usually rise significantly relative to the Conservatives’ within months of the Tories […]
Politics should be something that everyone can get involved in, and Verto is proving that Voter Advice Applications play a vital role on this mission.
Voter Advice Applications have been on the rise in recent years. These websites and apps match users to a particular political party based on a set of questions about their attitudes to different policies and political statements. Verto, launched last year, has been rebooted for the London Mayoral election. Here, Oliver Sidorczuk, Emily Rainsford, and […]
The number of party mergers is likely to increase in advanced democracies
Many of the important political parties in European democracies today (including the UK Liberal Democrats) resulted from the permanent unification of smaller parties. Such mergers can have major consequences on party competition, electoral outcomes and government formation. Raimondas Ibenskas discusses the results of a recent comparative study on party mergers in 24 European democracies by […]
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