Politics Paper 1 evidence
A level politics- Evidence bank
UK Politics- Paper 1
Topic 1) democracy and participation
Direct Democracy-
UK has only ever had 13 referendums
Not legally binding
Switzerland, a state which uses direct democracy often - giving around 10 referendum
style votes a year is considered the 5th most democratic state globally, whereas the
UK is 17th
Recent examples: Brexit (2016), AV referendum (2011)
Brexit: 42% of leave voters in the UK believed that the UK would save 350 mil per week
Voting turnout in 2016 EU referendum=72.2%
Voting turnout in 2014 Scottish independence referendum- 84.6%
o Electoral Commission reported that there was a turnout of 75% amongst 16-
17-year-olds in the Scottish Independence Referendum, with 97% of those
who voted saying they would vote again in the future.
Protests after EU referendum- Over one million participants could potentially be an
argument against direct democracy
2015 Recall of MPs act- successfully used to remove: Fiona Onasanya and Christopher
Davies- Ian Paisley Jr's petition was unsuccessful signed by 9.4% of constituents)
There have been at least 6 by-elections in the past year caused by the resignation (or
recall) of sitting MPs
7.6% voting increase for 2016 EU Referendum
The Cabinet Office estimated that the total cost of the 2016 EU Referendum was £150
million
The phenomenon of ‘Bregret’ has gained notoriety in recent months, as polls have
revealed that in March 2024, 57% of voters believe that the decision to leave the EU
was the wrong choice
To further develop this point, a petition on the gov e-petition website to revoke brexit
got over 6.4 million signs, clearly showing ‘bregret’.
Direct democracy is beneficial for political engagement. Scottish independence ref, 3\4
of scots got involved in at least one activity related to it, campaigning + use of social
media. Brexit ref, there were around 38 million online interactions related to it from
march 2016 - june 2016.
Representative Democracy-
Operate on FPTP (criticised for not being very representative)
Eg. 2019 GE: Conservatives sustained 43% of vote in 67% turnout however received
365/650 seats
2019 GE election results:
o Conservatives: 43% of vote à 365/650 seats
,Politics Paper 1 evidence
o Labour: 32% of vote à 203 seats
o Lib Dems: 11% of vote à 11 seats
o Green: 2.7% of vote à 0 seats
2001 General Election turnout- 59.4% (all time low)
1950 General Election turnout: 84% (all time high)
2017 General Election turnout- 68.8%
All show that our system is not very representative due to low turnout
Because of FPTP in the last election, UKIP received 3.8m votes, 1 seat
HOL remains unelected
Increased representation acts:
o The Great Reform act 1832
o The Reform act 1867
o Representation of the People act 1884
o Ballot act 1872 (secret ballot)
o Representation of the People act 1918 (expanded franchise to all men over
age of 21 and most women 30+)
o Equal Franchise act 1928 (lowered voting age for women from 30 à 21)
o Representation of the People act 1969 (extended franchise to almost all
citizens 18+)
Wider Franchise and debates over suffrage-
Over 89% of 16–17-year-olds registered for the Scottish independence referendum.
The elections act 2022- New requirement for Voter ID which could supress voter
turnout particularly in areas where people have less authenticated ID- poorer areas
can’t afford to travel so won’t have passports / licence and are less likely to vote
Conservative.
A study in Scotland found that young people enfranchised from age 16 in 2014 were
more likely to continue voting as they got older and did so in higher numbers,
particularly in elections where turnout is traditionally low (Sheffield Uni)
53% of those turned away at polling stations for 2024 local elections were ethnically
diverse
Measures proposed to weaken independence of electoral commission which
supervises elections + investigates breaches of electoral law.
Prisoner voting: 2004, EU court declared that the UK forbidding prisoners from voting
was contrary to their human rights protocol
Scottish prisoners ordinarily resident in Scotland serving a sentence of fewer than 12
months are now eligible to vote in Scottish Parliament, local and national park
elections.
Parliament voted 234/22 against prisoner voting
Compulsory voting: à 90% turnout in Belgium (2019), 91% in Australia (2019)
Participation
UK general election 2019 67%
, Politics Paper 1 evidence
NI Assembly election 2022 64%
Scottish Parliament elections 2021 64%
Welsh Assembly elections 2021 47%
England local elections 2018 35%
EU Parliament elections 2019 37%
In 2015 General Election: 66 à 37 à 24
o Turnout was 66%
o Of those who voted, 37% voted Con.
o Conservative party was voted in by 24% of total electorate
In 2019, 71% of votes had no bearing on the election result
Voter turnout has been decreasing since WW2
Turnout is even lower in ‘second order’ elections for bodies like the Police and Crime
Commissioner, which sat at just 15% in 2012. 2016 Local Elections = 34% average.
Voting within the age range of 18-24 between 1992 and 2015 has fallen by more than
50%
Hardly any other democracy uses FPTP (US and Canada being exceptions)
Since 1945, only 3 newly democratic independent countries have adopted FPTP, and
all have dropped it since
1/3 of seats in the UK have not changed parties since WW2
In 2019, in Manchester’s inner city constituencies, Labour received enough surplus
votes to win 4 more additional seats
In 2015, the DUP needed 23,000 votes / MP elected. In the same election, UKIP
received 3.8m votes but did not win any seats.
Over half of the Conservative voters in 2019 in London went unrepresented
In Scotland, 80% of Conservative voters and 95% of Labour voters went unrepresented
I. 2017, the SNP needed 27,000 votes / MP, the Green Party needed 525,000
In 2017 General Election:
o Highest turnout: Twickenham (80%)
o Lowest turnout: Glasgow NE (53%)
o 54% turnout for 18-24
o 71% turnout for 65+
o 69% turnout for upper / middle class
o 53% turnout for working / non working class
o 64% turnout for white electorate
o 53% turnout for black / ethnic minority
In a paper called ‘Aggregate Turnout is Mismeasured’, published in 2019, it was
argued that UK election turnout might be as much as 9% higher than previously
thought.
Authors argue that if errors in counting process are accounted for, turn out as
measured against the electoral register's been on average 10% higher than official
totals since 1979 and might even have been as high as 80% in 2017.
From 2011 to 2015, 150 E petitions collected 10,000 signatures receiving a formal
response from government.
37 E petitions reached over 100,000 signatures, with 31 going on to be debated in
the House of Commons.
