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Kavanagh et al: British Politics 5e

Chapter 22

The decline in representative politics

The Power Inquiry
www.powerinquiry.org/index.php
The Power Inquiry was established in 2004 "to explore how political participation and involvement can be increased and deepened in Britain". It eschewed the traditional 'great and the good' for 'Commissioners' drawn from those traditionally excluded from such bodies. It reported in 2006 with proposals which it claimed would rescue British democracy from 'meltdown'. You can review these in the final report which you can download from the site, alongside the evidence taken and briefing papers prepared for the inquiry.

Votes at Sixteen Campaign
www.votesat16.org.uk/
A reduction of the voting age to 16 in UK elections has been one proposal which has garnered attention in recent years as a potential solution to the 'crisis in participation', although the Electoral Commission rejected this proposal in 2004. You can review the arguments and the continuing campaign on the website.

Schnews
www.schnews.org.uk/index.html
Schnews was founded by activists against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994 and provides news and information on a variety of direct action campaigns. The site also serves as a host for a number of short films which you can download which vividly illustrate the tactics of direct action.

Robert Putnam: Bowling Alone – America's Declining Social Capital
xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html
Here you can find the full text of the journal article version of the influential argument advanced by Robert Putnam that declining participation in community affairs is a product of the decline in social capital. Although Putnam's focus is on the United States many have suggested that his conclusions are equally relevant to the changes in political participation witnessed in the United Kingdom

Political Studies Association – Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Group
www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/epop/epop.asp
EPOP is a specialist group operating under the auspices of the Political Science Association of the UK. This site provides links to the group's activities and is particularly useful in providing links to recent annual conference websites which include the full text of many of the papers. A number of these directly address the issues dealt with in this chapter alongside the material covered in Chapter 20.