There are increasing concerns about changes in society and the economy which are undermining the effectiveness of democracy and weakening traditional conceptions of citizenship. What does it mean to ...be a British citizen in the early part of the 21st century? This book presents the first major empirical study of citizenship in Britain, comprising surveys of political participation and voluntary activities, and of the beliefs and values which underpin them. As well as presenting new data, the authors provide a sophisticated discussion of the concept of citizenship, and the consequences of a lack of civic engagement in a modern democracy. It examines why some people are 'good' citizens when others are 'bad' and it explores the consequences of citizenship for policy-makers and democracy. Comprehensive and accessible, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of civic attitudes in Britain today and will appeal to students, researchers and policy-makers.
Over recent decades, scholars have explored political parties' adoption of digital technology. Tracing successive eras of change, scholarship has examined the degree to which digital disrupts or ...embeds traditional power structures - with many studies finding evidence of 'controlled-interactivity'. In this article we revisit debates around the adoption of digital tools from a bottom-up perspective. Moving beyond attempts to categorise elite strategies for digital adoption, we consider practices on the ground to document how, in practice, digital technology is being taken up and used. Using a case study of the UK Labour Party, we categorise a range of different practices, highlighting and theorising the presence of digital adherents, laggards, entrepreneurs, renegades and refuseniks. Discussing the drivers of these practices, we offer new insight into variations in digital adoption and consider the significance of these trends for our understanding of party organisation., Over recent decades, scholars have explored political parties' adoption of digital technology. Tracing successive eras of change, scholarship has examined the degree to which digital disrupts or embeds traditional power structures-with many studies finding evidence of 'controlled-interactivity'. In this article, we revisit debates around the adoption of digital tools from a bottom-up perspective. Moving beyond attempts to categorise elite strategies for digital adoption, we consider practices on the ground to document how, in practice, digital technology is being taken up and used. Using a case study of the UK Labour Party, we categorise a range of different practices, highlighting and theorising the presence of digital adherents, laggards, entrepreneurs, renegades and refuseniks. Discussing the drivers of these practices, we offer new insight into variations in digital adoption and consider the significance of these trends for our understanding of party organisation.
Analysis of patterns of participation revealed three dimensions of civic activism in modern Britain: individualistic activism; contact activism; and collective activism. Three alternative theories of ...participation were examined to account for these dimensions: general incentives; social capital; and civic voluntarism. None proved sufficient in itself to account for civic activism in modern Britain: each provided only part of the explanation.
British Party Members Seyd, Patrick; Whiteley, Paul
Party politics,
07/2004, Letnik:
10, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Party membership and activism is declining among Britain’s three major parties. Using individual membership survey data, evidence of this decline, particularly in party activism, is presented. ...Reasons for the decline are considered. It is suggested that choice-based rather than structural explanations are more persuasive. The impact of the decline upon the parties and the political system is considered. The article concludes that it is possible for parties to stimulate membership and activism.
New Parties/New Politics? Seyd, Patrick
Party politics,
07/1999, Letnik:
5, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Britain's two major parties have rediscovered their members. For a variety of reasons both the Labour and Conservative parties have adopted pro-active recruitment strategies. At the same time, they ...have introduced direct democracy as an important part of their internal procedures. A detailed study of Labour's reforms suggests various possible implications for the future, including the fact that the plebiscitarian party might be an increasingly common feature in modern democracies.
The emergence of municipal radicalism as a demonstration of successful socialist enterprise in London buroughs and provinces was never a homogeneous block throughout the late 1970s. An examination of ...radicalism in the Sheffield England province and the province's subsequent move from socialism to entrepreneuralism is featured.
A modern British election campaign is multidimensional, with significant variations in party strategies over time and location. In the general elections of 1992 and 1997, the Labour Party developed ...innovative forms of campaigning, some of which the Conservative Party attempted to replicate in the 2001 general election. The article outlines the main features of Labour's campaign leading up to the 2001 general election. In order to evaluate the impact of Labour's campaign on turnout and party choice, data on the Conservative and Liberal Democrat campaigns are also examined using the 2001 British Election Study panel survey. The impact of party campaigning is revealed to have a significant effect on both turnout and party choice. Liberal Democrat and Labour campaigning proves to be especially influential. These findings reinforce earlier research on the importance of party campaigning in influencing voting behaviour.
A common refrain in both popular and academic accounts of recent trends in British political life is that the general public is becoming less active and civic life is in crisis. However, evidence ...from the Citizen Audit surveys suggests a very different picture of Britain at the start of the twenty-first century. British people are still active citizens and have a strong normative commitment towards citizenship. But their repertoire of actions has widened considerably. They may be less involved in ‘traditional’ forms of political action, but they are more willing to undertake individual actions than before, and are still active in local associational life. Patterns of activity still reflect long-standing social divisions, however.
Changes in activism among grassroots members of the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain are modelled using panel surveys in this article, with party members being surveyed before and after the ...1992 general election. The evidence suggests that a decline in activism over time has occurred in both parties, but this decline is greater in the Labour party than in the Conservative party. This is attributed to a number of political, cultural and sociological changes in society over time, but in the short run the main factor is the outcome of the general election in 1992. These trends are modelled by means of a ‘general incentives’ theory of activism, which explains the decline in activism in terms of changing incentives for political action. Reductions in incentives for activism were, with one exception, greater for Labour party members than for Conservatives, which explains the differences between the two parties. This may produce a ‘spiral of demobilization’ in which electoral losses produce a decline in activism and campaigning at the local level, which in turn leads to further electoral losses.
