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The Participation Crisis in UK Politics
24th January 2025
A recent analysis of the 2024 UK general election, published by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) in its study A System Out of Step (December 2024), has highlighted a number of issues linked to the A-level Politics key term participation or participation crisis (AQA 3.1.2 The Politics of the UK; Pearson Edexcel Component 1: UK Politics and Core Political Ideas). The latter is defined as ‘a lack of engagement by a significant number of citizens to relate to the political process either by choosing not to vote or to join or become members of political parties or to offer themselves for public office.’ According to the ERS’s research, the 2024 general election suggests that the UK faces a serious and multifaceted participation crisis. Some of the main findings on this topic are discussed below.
Turnout
The most basic measure of participation is turnout and in 2024 just under 6 in 10 registered voters (59.9 per cent) cast a ballot in the general election. This was the second lowest voter turnout, after the 2001 general election (59.4 per cent), since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1928. In every general election across the period 1922-97 turnout remained above 71 per cent but since 2001 fewer than 7 in 10 members of the electorate have voted at each general election. This decline in participation, as measured by turnout at general elections, undermines the authority and democratic legitimacy of the House of Commons.

Unable to participate
Having said this, turnout is a blunt instrument with which to measure participation because it does not take into account those eligible people who cannot vote because they are missing from, or inaccurately recorded on, the electoral registers. According to the Electoral Reform Society, these registers are only 86 per cent accurate, leaving just under 8.2 million would-be voters excluded from the electoral system in England, Scotland and Wales. To boost participation, campaigners have called on the government to introduce measures to simplify registration and widen voting such as removing voter ID requirements, implementing automatic voter registration, extending voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds and imposing compulsory voting. When this excluded group is added to the number of registered voters who did not vote at the 2024 general election (see table below), the overall figure is just below the total number of registered voters who cast a ballot – 27.5 million compared with 28.8 million. This indicator suggests that the UK faces a serious participation crisis when almost half of the actual-potential electorate did not exercise its democratic right to vote at the last general election.

‘Ignored’ participation (1)
In addition, millions of voters in the 2024 general election were effectively ignored since their participation had no real impact, giving rise to fears that in future more voters will abandon the electoral process. Under the first past the post electoral system (FPTP) used for general elections, the victorious candidate in each constituency needs just one more vote than their second-placed rival to become an MP. Consequently, the votes cast in each constituency can be divided into three categories: (1) decisive votes – those required to secure the election of the winning candidate (just one more than the person in second place) (2) surplus votes – those cast for the winning candidate above the total needed to elect them (3) unrepresented votes – all those cast for candidates who failed to become the MP. In effect, under FPTP, the votes in category (1) are critical to the outcome in each constituency but those in (2) and (3) make no difference to the result. At the 2024 general election, 15.9 per cent of votes (4.6 million) were surplus and 57.8 per cent (16.6 million) were unrepresented, making a total of 73.7 per cent (21.2 million votes) that were ignored. As the table below shows, every general election in the 21st century so far has disregarded the votes of around 7 in every 10 participants.

‘Ignored’ participation (1)
In addition, millions of voters in the 2024 general election were effectively ignored since their participation had no real impact, giving rise to fears that in future more voters will abandon the electoral process. Under the first past the post electoral system (FPTP) used for general elections, the victorious candidate in each constituency needs just one more vote than their second-placed rival to become an MP. Consequently, the votes cast in each constituency can be divided into three categories: (1) decisive votes – those required to secure the election of the winning candidate (just one more than the person in second place) (2) surplus votes – those cast for the winning candidate above the total needed to elect them (3) unrepresented votes – all those cast for candidates who failed to become the MP. In effect, under FPTP, the votes in category (1) are critical to the outcome in each constituency but those in (2) and (3) make no difference to the result. At the 2024 general election, 15.9 per cent of votes (4.6 million) were surplus and 57.8 per cent (16.6 million) were unrepresented, making a total of 73.7 per cent (21.2 million votes) that were ignored. As the table below shows, every general election in the 21st century so far has disregarded the votes of around 7 in every 10 participants.

The ERS’s study makes a powerful case for a participation crisis in UK general elections. It moves beyond the conventional focus on turnout to consider other features such as potential voters currently excluded from the electoral process and participants whose voting preferences are either ignored or surplus to requirements. In highlighting these issues, the ERS’s research indicates that the participation crisis in UK politics is both complex and deep-seated.
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