Political ignorance and democratic atrophy

Democracy is meant to protect us from arbitrary rule. It ought to give everyone a chance to ensure decisions that are binding on all of us reflect our shared concerns, and are not made to suit just a powerful few. However, democracy cannot function if people are unaware of how it is supposed to work or what they could do to make a difference. Looking at developments in the UK and the US, countries that have historically led the way in democratising their system of governance, the signs are not encouraging.

A considerable number of citizens do not even register to vote – 17 per cent in Britain, 24 per cent in the US. Of those who have registered, many do not turn out to vote; around a third or more are no-shows in UK general elections, and about 40 per cent do not vote in US presidential elections. While there are rightly mass protests against climate change, racism and economic hardships, there is little concerted efforts in resisting the erosion of democracy – even though an effective democratic system is what people need to effect the necessary reforms to deal with major societal problems.

Instead of moving us closer to the point where we have a genuinely equal say about who are to be our representatives or which major policy to adopt, democracy has increasingly been undermined by political manoeuvres designed to reinforce unfair power distribution. Gerrymandering in the US has meant that in many states the vote for a Democrat candidate counts less than that for a Republican candidate, as it would take many more votes for the Democrats to win seats, given the way electoral boundaries have been redrawn (Li et al, 2018). The imposition of photo ID requirements in elections in the US and the UK is highly likely to put more of the poorest, most marginalised citizens off from voting (O’Donoghue, 2016). The hasty introduction of a flawed voter registration system in the UK led to almost 2 million people dropping off the electoral register – mainly those who were among the most disempowered in society, such as students, the poor and minority ethnic groups in inner cities (Lowles, 2015).