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WISERD’s latest working paper outlines the  main  proceedings  of  an  international  conference  held  at Sciences Po Lyon, France, on 4 May 2018.  The symposium and subsequent working paper was led by Professor Alistair Cole (Professeur de Science Politique, Directeur du pôle Stratégie et partenariats internationaux, Sciences Po, Lyon and WISERD). The new publication pulls together…

When researchers look at the people who are more likely to vote in elections, or to volunteer in their community, they regularly find themselves describing the same group: those who are highly educated, come from middle class backgrounds and households, who believe that interacting with their community is what a ‘good citizen’ does, and who…

The fact that younger generations are less likely to be interested in politics, and that this is related to the generational decline of turnout in the UK, is often treated as something of a slur; a claim that is not only unfair to young people but lets politicians off the hook. Instead, centre stage is…

In a previous post we saw how the turnout of younger voters has fallen substantially over the past fifty years, and that the turnout gap between young people and the wider electorate has trebled since 18 year olds were first allowed to vote. There is an extensive – and sometimes heated – debate amongst academics,…

Our previous blog showed the challenge facing British democracy stemming from the sharp age-based differences in electoral turnout: while younger people have always been less likely to vote, since 1970 the difference between them and their elders has trebled. Since 2001, it has been fair to say that the average British young person does not…

In the 1970 General Election (the first following the reduction of the voting age to 18), 65% of eligible 18-24 year olds voted – roughly 7% lower than the turnout for the whole electorate.  By the 2017 election (despite claims of a so-called ‘youthquake’), this difference had trebled: fewer than half of eligible 18-24 year…

Dr Fox’s funding is for an Understanding Society Policy Fellowship, which will fund a one year research project called ‘Social action as a route to the ballot box: can volunteering reduce inequalities in turnout?’ The funding is for an Understanding Society Policy Fellowship, which will fund a one year research project called ‘Social action as…

Dr Stuart Fox explores the extent to which attitudes towards the EU are passed between generations

Dr Stuart Fox’s paper was featured on the PM programme

Dr Stuart Fox suggests there was no real increase in youth turnout at last year’s election After the polls closed in the 2017 general election, the ‘youthquake’ quickly became one of the hottest talking points amongst academics, politicians and journalists alike. Driven on by photographs on social media of young people queuing outside polling stations,…