Golden age, apathy or stealth? Democratic engagement in Britain, 1945–1950

Westminster’s Brexit Paradox: The contingency of the ‘old’ versus ‘new’ politics

“…What then emerges in the wake of the referendum is a paradox: the leave campaign invoked populist rhetoric to demonise political elites, but at the same time pitched its campaign round the call to 'take back control' and, in so doing, repatriate power to the very set of 'self-styled elites' it railed against. To give context to this paradox, in the United Kingdom both anti-politics and populism are by no means a new phenomenon (Moss et al, 2016). Westminster's political class has not been immune to these forces, given the reliance on claims to democratic legitimacy as the lodestone of the representative process.…”

“…The thesis argued that following the turn to statist programmes adopted by advanced liberal democracies in the aftermath of the Second World War, there was an identifiable increase in public expectations of what governments should provide. The conclusion was that failure to deliver on many of these expectations resulted in a serious decline of confidence in the state (Birch, 1964; Moss et al, 2016). One important consequence was the Wilson Government’s decision to hold a referendum in 1975 on British membership of the European Economic Community.…”

“…The context for this debate is the repeated calls over the last 30 years within Westminster’s political class for what is, rather vaguely, termed ‘a new politics’. As Moss et al (2016) note, appeals for a new way of doing politics are by no means novel in British politics. What characterises more recent demands is the context in which they are framed: a rising tide of ‘anti-politics’ is straining the British Political Tradition’s (BPT) emphasis on elite accountability.…”

Politicians, professionalization and anti-politics: why we want leaders who act like professionals but are paid like amateurs

“…Dowding 2017). A longitudinal analysis of the type undertaken by Moss et al (2016) could further tease out these trends over time. And, both types of work can assist with the generation of questions for public surveys that better reflect the multiple meanings and dimensions of professionalization.…”

“…We know that politicians increasingly treat their job as a career, enter the profession younger, are drawn from a narrower range of backgrounds, and receive higher salaries and associated perks. The parallel rise in anti-political sentiment since the late 1970s and early 1980s appears to support this trend (Moss et al 2016).…”