Local Democracy Week 2013 Challenge: Why Should Anyone Bother to Vote?
As part of this year’s European Local Democracy Week, Portsmouth City Council, the University of Portsmouth and the Political Studies Association (PSA) ran a challenge exercise to consider voting and electoral turnout. The event sought to identify current barriers to voting, why turnout at all levels of elections is falling and how we could address some of these problems through real-life examples and real-time solutions. The event was held on Monday 14 October 2013 in the Council Chamber at Portsmouth Guildhall. It was completely free for anyone who was interested in or studying politics, in networking with fellow students and meeting new people. The event even received a mention in the Guardian’s local government network.
Guest speakers for the event were Dr Robert Frith, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR), the University of Portsmouth and Dr James Sloam, Co-Director of Centre for European Politics, Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Firstly, Dr Frith presented some facts and figures about local, national and European level elections, showing there has been a general decline in voter turnout. He argued that this is partly down to voter apathy and partly politicians giving doubtful promises. Such low level of participation undermines the legitimacy of collective choice and representation. Additionally, he added that there is a rise in ‘anti-politics’ and that the number of happy non-voters is going up, suggesting it is just easier for ordinary people to be not involved at all in the state’s political life.
Following this, Dr Sloam focused on how young Europeans are reshaping the political landscape nowadays and called them ‘Outraged Young’. He emphasized that there is a disconnection between young people and elections, but that political participation expresses itself in a number of ways, not just through voting. He showed that older people vote more than young, so youth issues are often ignored by politicians. The participation of different age groups and all social classes is crucial as it is a key pillar of democracy. However, there is a tendency that young people from higher social classes are more active than those from lower classes, as they organise more demonstrations and petitions if they want to express their opinion and emphasize their problems within state. Dr Sloam added that while social institutions such as schools and universities encourage young people to be more active in political life. However, when people graduate, they are not interested in politics anymore.
After the presentations, the challenge activity followed for the people who attended. Teams of five were given time to address four key questions and create a three minute pitch to present how they would tackle voter turnout. Each team pitched and summarised their answers, ideas and suggestions in relation to each of the challenge questions. The challenge analysed such issues as the better ways how to address falling voter turn-out at local, national and European level. Participants suggested a range of great ideas, such as synchronising local and national elections day and holding various debates or humorous TV shows while involving both politicians and potential voters. Also, the idea to introduce an online voting sounded reasonable as there are already some countries using such system in the European Union, proving its efficiency and success. Furthermore, the participants discussed whether it would be useful to register all voters, something they concluded would be quite difficult due to the fact that people regularly move. Participants also decided that voters should not be offered incentives to vote because they have to go voting by their own wish, not by some things that encourage. People should engage with political decision-making of the state as it considers everything about their life in general. Active or passive engagement shows the level of political culture of people which is mainly an individual thing.
Overall, the main conclusion was the need to target the right people in the right place. After the challenge, the answers of participants were analysed and judged by the guest speakers and representatives from Portsmouth City Council’s Communities Engagement and Elections departments. The team that suggested the best ideas won the prize. Each member of the winning team was awarded a one year subscription to Political Insight Magazine.
The challenge was designed to be cross-discipline and therefore was open to students of any subject and to the general public. European Local Democracy Week 2013 is a Congress of Europe initiative to promote ‘Active citizenship: voting, sharing, participating’ across Europe and beyond and took place from 14 to 20 October 2013. The project was supported by University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth City Council and the Political Studies Association.
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Written by Gerda Morkeviciute
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