Political Participation and Democracy in Britain

The results of a survey on the level and patterns of political involvement in Britain.

Geraint Parry (Author), George Moyser (Author), Neil Day (Author)

9780521336024, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 January 1992

528 pages, 50 b/w illus. 1 map 100 tables
23.5 x 19.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.9 kg

"This book has many strengths that deserve to make it a standard work in the field. It tries to set out a coherent picture of what circumstances lead which people to participate, how, and with what results. In the process it tells us much about British politics and adds greatly to the study of political participation in general. This is an ambitious project and some shortcomings are inevitable; but the book's achievements far outweigh its shortcomings....All-in-all a very impressive piece of research...." Mark N. Franklin, British Politics Group Newsletter

Why do some people involve themselves in politics and others not? Which issues are they concerned with? What do they get out of it? Answering such questions is fundamental to understanding political life and the workings of liberal democracies. This book presents the results of one of the most extensive surveys ever undertaken on the levels and patterns of political involvement in Britain. It is based on the findings of a sample survey of nearly 1,600 people across England, Scotland and Wales as well as a further 1,600 men and women and nearly 300 leaders in six specially selected and contrasting communities. These people were asked about the extent to which they had taken political action, particularly at a local level, and the authors found higher levels of participation than previous research has revealed. They analyse these findings in terms of age, gender, social class and education and look at the reactions of local leaders to the efforts people make to influence them.

Preface
List of figures, tables and charts
Part I. Theories and Methods: 1. Participation and democracy
2. The study of participation and its political context
Part II. Patterns and Pathways: 3. Patterns of political participation
4. Individual resources
5. Group resources
6. Economic location
7. Personal factors
8. Political outlooks
9. Party and values
10. Who are the political activists
Part III. Issues and Actions: 11. Agendas and political action
12. Do participants get what they want? The costs and benefits of participation
13. Learning from political participation
Part IV. The Local Process: 14. The local political scene
15. Local participation
16. Local élites, activists and agendas
17. Participation and the making of the local agendas
18. The quality of local participation
Part V. Conclusions: 19. Participation and democracy in Britain
Appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Political structure & processes [JPH]