Research

The bad manners of dissolving Parliament

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 25 February 2010 - 9:29am

Assuming the General Election in the UK is on 6 May, the election will be called on 12 April. The constitutional and ceremonial practice of calling an election involves the Great Seal of the Realm, royal proclamations and lots of other historical flummery. The political calculation, since the dissolution date is in the hands of the Prime Minister, is sharper.

Compulsory civic service

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 7 December 2009 - 8:37am
James Crabtree writes a long article, which is worth reading, following up on his idea of compulsory civic service in the light of recent work by DEMOS. I have a few philosophical problems with the idea of compulsory civic service, not least the idea that it is the State's responsibility actively to define what its citizens should do, rather than to prohibit what they ought not to do. That said, James's piece makes me a little better-disposed to the proposal, not least b

Does direct democracy lead to distrust?

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 3 December 2009 - 7:52pm
I think futurity.org is rather overselling this study by the University of Buffalo:
Ballot initiatives, long thought to encourage democratic citizenship, may actually have the opposite effect of fostering distrust in state government, a new study finds.
After all, there are no directly democratic institutions in the UK and trust in government is just as low here as it is in the US.

Inflated expectations

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 26 November 2009 - 4:57pm
It's the first birthday of the Other Taxpayers' Alliance today, and they have an amusing "Which"-style comparison guide if you aren't sure which one you ought to support. The original TaxPayers' Alliance were quoted in a blog post I was reading earlier, from Thomas Byrne, who said, by way of an argument for cutting top public sector salaries:
While there is no systematic data on ex

Council or community?

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 16 November 2009 - 12:25pm
In an excellent overview (Digital engagement governance – a dichotomy between hyperlocal or partnership managed), Michele Ide-Smith sets out the pros and cons of handling community engagement projects through councils and partnerships, or through more organic local community media approaches:
Council / partnership managed approach Pro’s:
  • A level of moderation and facilitation control
  • Less reliance on volunteers, who are often transitory and hard to coordinate
  • Focus on specific iss

Who You Calling Deranged?

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 21 October 2009 - 8:45pm
This is where conspiracy theories lead you (via The New Republic).
Focus group interviews show that the Republican right, which consists of about a fifth of the electorate, is held together by a set of beliefs that goes well beyond small government and traditional values. "Our groups showed that they explicitly believe [Obama] is purposely and ruthlessly executing a hidden agenda to weaken and ultimately destroy the foundations of our country," reports the survey.

Telephone numbers

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 20 October 2009 - 10:06am
There has been a lot of noise in the French press recently about a wave of suicides at France Telecom. Just the other day I got an iPhone newsflash from Le Monde telling me of the latest one. It's welcome therefore to see René Padieu, an academic statistician at INSEE, stepping into the breach and pointing out that the suicide rate amongst France Telecom employees is actually lower than the national rate of 19.6 per hundred thousand.

Brits, the discontented Europeans

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 29 July 2009 - 7:33pm
Eurobarometer has published its research (pdf) into turnout at the European Parliament elections last month. The state of the UK's democratic debate, particularly on European issues, doesn't come out of it very well. Generally, the picture is of just another election, with turnout patterns similar to national elections, and the 'usual voters' turning up at the polls. Most people who voted said that they did so because it was a civic duty, or because they always voted.

Don't let lies go by

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 10 June 2009 - 8:19pm
Matt Yglesias considers a new working paper from Brendan Nyhan, on the effectiveness of political misinformation. Matt's summary:
In politics getting your allies to lie about your opponents can be a very effective political tactic.

A depressing graph

Submitted by Anthony Zacharzewski on 22 May 2009 - 10:29am
Here's a graph I put together for a presentation the other day. Covering most mature democracies, it shows the years and turnout rates of the highest (blue upward triangle) and lowest (red downward triangle) turnouts post-war. It doesn't take a maths whizz to see that everywhere has been experiencing record lows - except the two red triangles on the left of the diagram. Those are for Sweden and Denmark, where turnout has not declined as sharply as elsewhere.
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