Political Preferences And The Privatization Of Education: Evidence From The UK

Abstract Recent developments in British politics have foregrounded two issues of particular importance to Britons living overseas: their voting rights in the UK and Brexit. In light of this, the number of British expatriates registering to vote has risen sharply and provided an incentive to develop UK parties abroad. We, therefore, set out the history and organisational structures of the major British parties abroad, and report the results of a unique online survey of British expatriate citizens, which tests whether ‘Votes for Life’ and Brexit have significantly impacted on their political preferences. We find that latter has done so, but the former has not. In view of this, the historically embedded expectations of a general expatriate preference for the Conservative Party no longer apply to those based in EU countries. In the wake of Brexit, this group appears to have swung decisively against the party and turned towards Labour and the Liberal Democrats. This suggests that the likelihood of the current Conservative administration introducing legislation to extend expatriate Britons’ voting rights, as pledged in the Queen’s Speech of December 2019, is remote, raising existential questions for the future of UK parties abroad.

Download Full-text

Devolution

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198714897.013.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

James Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Party Systems ◽

Collective Identities ◽

Constitutional Development ◽

Political Preferences ◽

Economic Developments ◽

The Uk ◽

Different Parts ◽

Over Time

This chapter attempts to draw out comparisons and make sense of devolution as a UK-wide phenomenon. Devolution has taken a variety of forms at different times in different parts of the UK. A key aim of the chapter is to describe these varieties and explain why no common form of devolution emerged. Devolution may be a form of constitutional development but it has always been linked to wider socio-demographic and economic developments as much as to the sense of collective identities. Some interpretations emphasize the role of national identity in the demands for devolution in Scotland and Wales while others lay more emphasis on differences in political preferences that stimulated demands for self-government. No understanding of the politics of devolution is complete without an appreciation of the roles of identity, the party systems, political and public policy preferences, and how these changed over time.

Download Full-text

Forecasting political preferences and election outcomes in the UK: Experiences, problems and prospects for the next general election

Electoral Studies ◽

10.1016/0261-3794(94)00005-t ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 251-272 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

David Sanders

Keyword(s):

General Election ◽

Political Preferences ◽

The Uk

Download Full-text

Education as a Cleavage

10.1093/oso/9780198790631.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Bovens ◽

Anchrit Wille

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

The Netherlands ◽

First Century ◽

European Countries ◽

The Political ◽

Political Landscape ◽

Political Preferences ◽

Educational Differences ◽

The Uk ◽

Selection Of

Cleavage formation in the nineteenth and twentieth century was based on religion and class. To what extent can we observe an emerging social and political cleavage along educational lines across Europe in the twenty-first century? We use a broad notion of cleavage and look at educational patterns of segmentation, stratification, and segregation; differences in political preferences; and to what extent these educational differences are reflected in the political landscape. We construct an index of cleavage formation that aims to measure to what extent the various differences along educational lines are merging. The degree to which the contours of this new divide have been crystallized is stronger in western and northern countries than elsewhere in Europe. This analysis forms the basis of our selection of six West European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, and the UK.

Download Full-text