Popular understandings of politics in Britain, 1937-2014

There is alienation and withdrawal from formal politics in many countries at the present time. In Britain, election turnout, party membership, and trust in politicians are all declining. This worries governments who respond with policies to renew democracy. But such policies have struggled because the causes for such disenchantment and disengagement are not clear. Relationships between measures of political participation and numerous other variables, from levels of political corruption to levels of social capital, have been explored. But few clear patterns have emerged. Missing from research to date on this topic are the voices of citizens, in which can be found their shifting understandings, expectations, and judgements regarding politics and politicians.

The overall aim of the proposed study is to understand better what and how British citizens have thought about formal politics since the late 1930s (when relevant datasets begin). This overall aim translates into three objectives: 1) to establish the range of popular understandings of politics among British citizens; 2) to establish changes in prominence of certain popular understandings over time; and 3) to suggest causes for these changes.

To achieve these objectives, three interconnected stages of research will be completed:
1. A contextual review of relevant and existing survey data will be used to establish broad trends, fluctuations, and cycles of public opinion regarding formal politics. Sources to be consulted, some of which date back to 1937, include Gallup poll results, National Opinion Poll results, and Ipsos-MORI results.
2. Analysis of qualitative data found in the Mass Observation Archive. On eight occasions between 1945 and 2010, hundreds of Mass-Observation panellists were asked to write about politicians, elections, and political parties. Responses will be analysed for displays of shared understandings of politics in British society at particular historical moments.
3. Integration of findings from the historical research - stages 1 and 2 - with relevant contemporary research including work from the last decade involving the ESRC and the Hansard Society seeking to audit political engagement in twenty-first century Britain.

Potential benefits for politicians, political parties, civil servants, social scientists, and, ultimately, citizens include: a better knowledge of various popular understandings of formal politics and how these have changed over the decades; a better understanding of how people think and act - and come to think and act - in relation to formal politics; a better understanding of the historical specificity and, related to that, the likely causes of current disenchantment and disengagement from formal politics; a set of evidence-based reform options in the field of democratic renewal; and, ultimately, if such reform options are taken up, the increased engagement of citizens with the democratic process, and more legitimate and effective government.

We expect direct users to include: politicians, political parties, and civil servants, all of whom desire to understand more about current disenchantment with formal politics and how to improve current democratic engagement; and political scientists, historians, and human geographers, many of whom desire to know more about popular understandings of formal politics, whether and how they change over time, and their relationship to political participation.

We expect these direct users to be mostly UK-based - at the national, devolved, and local scales - since the data relate to British politics and citizens only. But we expect indirect users to include similar groups in countries experiencing similar problems with trust in formal politics (e.g. the USA).

We also expect indirect users to include citizens in the UK and elsewhere, since ultimately the project aims to give ordinary citizens a voice in debates about democratic renewal, and to address their alienation regarding formal politics.

One short-term impact will be the provision of new data to scholars. Here, a special Mass-Observation directive will be funded by the project. It will ask Mass Observation's panel of volunteer writers to share details of their practices and thinking regarding politicians, political parties, political positions and policies, and elections. The data will be available to all interested scholars via the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex.

But we expect short-term impacts to be mostly conceptual in character. We aim to provide the users listed above with a better knowledge of various popular understandings of formal politics and how these have changed over the decades; a better understanding of how people think and act - and come to think and act - in relation to formal politics; and a better understanding of the historical specificity and, related to that, the likely causes of current disenchantment and disengagement from formal politics.

We expect medium-term impacts to be mostly instrumental in character. Based on public discussions informed by the empirical research (see Pathways to Impact document), we aim to provide the users listed above with reform options in the field of democratic renewal.

We also expect long-term impacts to be mostly instrumental in character. Reform options, if taken up, could lead to increased engagement of citizens with the democratic process, including increased election turnout, increased party membership, and increased reported-trust in politicians. Ultimately, such attitudes and behaviours are thought to be important for legitimate and effective government, and so for those areas of life in which government plays a significant role (e.g. economic regulation and provision of public services).