Politics UK

Eleventh Edition

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Chapter 8

Elections and voting

Chapter Summary

Elections are central to the political system of the UK, ultimately enabling citizens to hold to account their representatives at national, sub-national and local levels. Turnout in elections has tended to decline, and this is largely a result of a declining sense of citizen duty among the electorate and a weakening of party identification. Another consequence of declining party loyalty is greater electoral volatility: there are many more voters willing to switch between elections based on the performance of the governing party or their feelings about the party leaders. In explaining patterns of party support, Brexit has encouraged a realignment whereby age and education have replaced socioeconomic factors like class as the best predictors of how people might vote. These variables are particularly useful in explaining votes for parties other than the big two, since their origins and priorities have more to do with the ‘vertical’ division between liberals and internationalists on the one hand and conservatives and nationalists on the other.

Learning Objectives

  • To understand the purposes and importance of elections in Britain.
  • To be aware of the variety of electoral systems in use in the UK.
  • To have a grasp of how and why turnout has varied over time, from place to place and from individual to individual.
  • To be aware of how and why support for different parties has varied over time, from place to place and from individual to individual

Quizzes

Test your knowledge with the Chapter 8 quizzes!

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Discussion Questions

  1. Several different elections take place regularly across the UK, most of which use different electoral systems. For UK general elections, why does the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system continue to be the system of choice even though frequently being cited as disproportional and unrepresentative?
  2. There are several theories and frameworks which attempt to understand why people vote the way they do. Thinking about the most recent 2024 UK general election, which theory (or theories) do you think best accounts for Labour’s landslide victory?

Electoral Calculus – A site predicting UK election outcomes based on polling data. (https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html)

Mark Pack’s Weekly Polling Blog – A blog analysing UK polling trends. (https://www.markpack.org.uk/171496/the-week-in-polls/)

British Election Study – A long-running study analysing voter behaviour and electoral outcomes. (https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/)

Electoral Commission – The UK’s independent elections regulator. (https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/)

Flashcards

Refresh your knowledge of key terms with this chapter’s flashcards.

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