Electoral (dis)engagement and feelings of political dissatisfaction over time (1983-2010)

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Overall patterns of recent electoral disengagement/dissatisfaction in Britain have been mapped by survey research. However, these studies tell us little about why citizens have chosen to disengage from electoral politics, the nature of their dissatisfaction or, alternatively, what they get out of participation and how this may be changing. These questions demand in-depth research on citizens’ (dis)engagement with electoral politics, and how this changes over time. Drawing upon the Mass Observation Archive, this research explores data which covers the six elections between 1983 and 2010 to provide a rare longitudinal, qualitative investigation of political (dis)engagement.

The findings provide an opportunity to apply survey-based explanations for electoral disengagement, e.g. convergence of the major parties (Curtice et al 2007), whilst adding depth and nuance to a field dominated by quantitative approaches. This paper will argue that political engagement needs to be understood not in terms of simple decline but in terms of changing social factors which, rather than making people apathetic, engender various forms of critical disengagement (Manning and Holmes 2013).