A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 20 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for the exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 20 – IS POLITICS BROKEN?
- Nature and health of politics
- Politics is connected to words such as corrupt, liar and untrustworthy → but is it
true?
A CRISIS OF ANTI-POLITICS?
- Anti-politics → refers to rejection of, and/or alienation from conventional politicians
and political processes, especially mainstream political parties and established
representative mechanisms
- Crisis in politics?
o In some sense politics has never been healthier
▪ More democracies – Eastern Europe, Arab Spring
o But also heavy cloud over policies – people disengaging from political process
Declining political engagement?
- Political engagement is an indication of the health of a political system
o Citizens are less interested in using their rights to participate
- Political engagement → the participation of citizens in the life of their community,
although this may range from formal political participation to wider communal
activities or even civic-mindedness
- UK voting turnout has decreased from average above 75% between 1945-1997 to
average of 62.5% between 2000-2015
o Similar trends across Western Europe, Japan, and parts of Latin America
- Fewer people identify with political parties → partisan dealignment
o Major long-term decline in party membership
o 2010 – fewer than 1% of people in the UK are members of parties, 50 years
ago it was 7%
- Political participation → the act of taking part in the formulation, passage, or
implementation of public policies
- Declining levels of party-activism
o People are cheque books members – paying to be members but not engaging
with the party
- Robert Putnam → declining social capital
- But there is criticism to the ‘participation crisis’ → maybe there was a shift from one
kind of participation to another
o Disillusionment and cynicism with mainstream politics
o Shift to pressure group politics, protest movements and use of social media to
facilitate debate and activism
o New politics – more fluid, participatory, non-hierarchical and more
spontaneous styles of political participation
- Mainstream politics → political activities, processes and structures that are regarded
as normal or conventional, the dominant trend in politics
The politics of anti-politics
, - Growing cynicism and anger towards mainstream politicians and parties
o Breakdown in trust
o Politicians seen as out-of-touch, privileged, corrupt or self-serving
- Anti-politics
o Associated with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization
o Also wide range of right-wing populist groups and movements (far right,
neofascists)
▪ Italy
▪ US – Tea Party movement
▪ 62 million people backed Donald Trump
▪ 10 million people supported Marine Le Pen
WHY WE HATE POLITICS
- We moved from a passive phase – declining level of political participation to a more
active phase – upsurge in loud criticism of politics
- Apathy → the absence of interest in, or enthusiasm for, things that are generally
considered to be interesting
Uninspiring party politics
- Mainstream political parties have been object of criticism
o Catch-all parties have been criticized for losing of ideologies
o Failed to provide emotional attachment for their voters
- Mainstream political parties are selling products rather than hopes and dreams
o All sounding the same and targeting same groups of voters
o Abandoning major issues and big choices → less meaningful
Declining capacity to deliver
- Declining capacity of political actors to ‘deliver the goods’ by affecting people’s lives
and bringing about meaningful economic and social change
- Loss of capacity to deliver has happened in 2 ways
o 1. Spread of neoliberalism
o 2. Advance of globalization
▪ Complex economic interdependence
▪ We can’t prevent global financial crisis from spreading
- Domestic circumstances are increasingly shaped by events beyond the government
control
The wrong politicians
- Assault of the characters of politicians
- The relation between power and corruption
- Members have often little to no experience from the real world – living in a bubble
and being politicians their whole life
o Politicians often seem like media constructs
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