Delivering subject content through nine life themes
One in three adults did not vote in the 2019 UK general election. In the recent local elections (in England), it was more like two in three. Some people will – for various reasons – have been unable to vote. But many chose not to bother. The numbers speak more of disillusionment and disengagement than of a body politic in robust health. And as a new report points out, our democratic system is failing to connect in the very places that need it most. At a time when trust in the political process is low across the world, citizenship education – political literacy – is more important than ever so that young people can learn not just about democracy but about the importance of participation, supporting them to go on to play their part as active, informed and responsible citizens.
The report – Power partners: How community organisations are breathing new life into local democracy – is published by Locality, an organisation that describes itself as “a national membership network supporting local community organisations to be strong and successful”.
The report includes an analysis of turnout in the 2023 local elections, comparing the wards with the highest and lowest turnout. It finds “a direct link between political apathy and local disadvantage”.
Local election turnout, the report says, is around 30% in standalone years (ie in years when local elections are not held on the same day as a general election) – shocking enough in itself. However, it points out that in some wards turnout in the 2023 local elections was below 20%, with turnout lower in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
For example, in the neighbourhood of Revoe in Blackpool – which is in the ward of Bloomfield, the sixth most disadvantaged in the country – turnout was just 18.2%.
A community centre manager in Hull is quoted as saying that people “don’t vote in this area because they don’t think it’ll make a difference”. The report also quotes polling for the We’re Right Here campaign that found that 71% of voters feel they have ‘no’ or ‘not much’ control over important decisions affecting their neighbourhoods and local communities.
The report’s conclusion is that “our formal, representative democracy is failing to connect in the places which arguably need it most”.
Young Citizens is a brand of the Citizenship Foundation in the UK. It does a lot of work supporting schools, though there is a substantial subscription fee. Its website is excellent on why citizenship education is so important.
Citizenship is more than a subject. It’s the bedrock to a strong society and democracy; it is a set of skills and knowledge that help you shape it. It’s now more important than ever to see our young people equipped as citizens so they are ready for the challenges of today and tomorrow.
from the Young Citizens website
A cohesive society, founded on strong communities, needs people to be politically literate and actively engaged as citizens. This means that we need to:
Image at the head of this by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.
