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London, UK
The upcoming UK election is all set to be the most unequal in 60 years, a think-tank has revealed.
Unequal election means that the gap in voter turnout based on age, income, class, home ownership and ethnicity has widened the most so far.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think tank, released a report recently which showed that the gap between social groups was the least in the 1960s but had grown to 18 per cent by 2010.
Underrepresentation of humble classes
It also noted that those who sit at the top of the social structure were more likely to vote in the elections than those sitting at the bottom, highlighting the sheer underrepresentation of humble classes in the general elections.
The IPPR found that nine in every 10 people in the top third of the income distribution voted in the two most recent general elections, compared with only seven in 10 from the bottom third.
The study also revealed that one in three university graduates has directly contacted a politician whereas the figure for people without degrees stood at just one in seven.
Dr Parth Patel, a senior research fellow at the IPPR, was quoted by the Guardian as saying that one of the consequences was that government policy was more attuned to the needs of the older, better-off and those with higher levels of education.
“There are real differences in who gets their way in our democracy. Policy is more responsive to preferences of the well-heeled than of the worse off, and people know this – but it seems to be a blind spot for most politicians,” he said.
“No matter who’s in power, our democratic machine needs rewiring. If people are once again to be authors of their own lives, and to feel secure, they must sense their influence in the collective decision-making endeavour that is democracy,” he was quoted as saying.
Dangerous for UK democracy
The study revealed that the UK risked entering a “doom loop” where government policies were becoming less responsive to the needs of the citizens, “in turn stoking populism and further undermining faith in democracy”.
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To counter this, it recommends a new wave of constitutional reform to spread power and influence in the UK, if living standards and life expectancy are to start improving across the board again.
(With inputs from agencies)