Showing papers in "The Political Quarterly in 2019"

How Russia's internet research agency built its disinformation campaign

Abstract: In this article we analyse features of the information influence operations run by the St. Petersburg based Internet Research Agency, targeted at Europe. Informed by publicly available ‘open source’ data, the analysis delineates three key tactics that underpinned their disinformation campaign: account buying; ‘follower fishing’; and narrative switching. Both individually and collectively these were designed to build the reach, impact and influence of the ideologically loaded messages that social media account operators authored and amplified. The particular value of the analysis is that whilst a lot of recent public and political attention has focussed upon Kremlin backed disinformation in respect of the 2016 United States presidential election, far less work has addressed their European activities.

Universal Basic Services: a theoretical and moral framework

Abstract: The case for Universal Basic Services (UBS) is a recent idea that is attracting much attention. This article provides a theoretical justification for extending the delivery of public services, as an alternative to the longer‐standing argument for Universal Basic Income (UBI). It rests on human need theory and the concept of provisioning systems. Both recognise the irreducible heterogeneity of consumption, the multi‐faceted nature of human needs and the variety of systems on which we all depend. Both recognise the importance of shared systems and mutual benefits. The final part restates the case for social rights or entitlements to the satisfaction of basic needs and for collective responsibilities to meet them to serve the values of equality, efficiency, solidarity and sustainability.

The Divergent Dynamics of Cities and Towns: Geographical Polarisation and Brexit

Abstract: While the EU referendum vote put the political divide between Britain’s towns and cities into the spotlight, this divide is the product of long-term forces of social and economic change. In this chapter, we show how geographical polarisation has and continues to reshape British politics, in the diverging trends between those places that have experienced relative decline and those that have thrived. Not only do these changes have electoral consequences for the major parties in Westminster they pose particular challenges in terms of public policy.

The political economy of Facebook advertising: election spending, regulation and targeting online

Abstract: Political advertising on Facebook is the latest in a long line of developments in campaign practice, and is a tool that has been mobilised extensively in elections around the world. In this article, we explore what we know about Facebook advertising at elections and ask what existing data from the UK Electoral Commission can reveal about current usage. Highlighting the principles behind Facebook advertising, we argue that existing metrics offer little insight into current campaign trends—posing analytical, methodological and normative challenges for academics and electoral regulators alike. Moreover, we argue that these challenges strike at the heart of debates about democratic responsibility and the degree to which governments should cede responsibility to commercial actors who may have differing understandings of fundamental democratic norms.

Resurgent Remain and a Rebooted Revolt on the Right: Exploring the 2019 European Parliament Elections in the United Kingdom

Abstract: The 2019 European Parliament (EP) election took place against the backdrop of the vote for Brexit and the failure of parliament to agree on a withdrawal agreement. Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party topped the poll and the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats, which called for a second referendum on EU membership, returned from electoral obscurity to take second place while other pro-Remain parties similarly performed well. In sharp contrast, the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives, recorded their lowest combined vote share since they became the main representatives of the two-party system. In this article, we draw on aggregate-level data to explore what happened at the 2019 EP election in Great Britain. Our evidence suggests Labour suffered from a 'pincer movement', losing support in its mainly white, working-class 'left behind' heartlands but also in younger cosmopolitan areas where Labour had polled strongly at the 2017 general election. Support for the new Brexit Party increased more significantly in 'left behind' communities, which had given strong support to Leave at the 2016 referendum, suggesting that national populists capitalised on Labour's woes. The Conservatives haemorrhaged support in affluent, older retirement areas but largely at the expense of the resurgent Liberal Democrats, with the latter surging in Remain areas and where the Conservatives are traditionally strong, though not in areas with younger electorates where the party made so much ground prior to the 2010-2015 coalition government. Lastly, turnout increased overall compared to 2014 but individuals living in Leave areas were less motivated to vote. Overall, our findings suggest that those living in Remain areas were more driven to express their discontent with the Brexit process and more inclined to support parties that offer a second referendum on Britain's EU membership.

NHS Inquiries and the Problem of Culture

Abstract: If inquiries are about learning the lessons of the past, why do they appear to find the same failings time and again? Bristol, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, Liverpool Community Health are all examples of where culture went wrong. The lack of learning from inquiries is a prominent concern and one raised elsewhere in this issue. In this article, I explore why it might be that culture is repeatedly found to be the cause of healthcare failures. I start by reviewing perspectives on what culture is and the degree to which it is possible change it. I examine how culture was described in the Bristol, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay and Liverpool inquiries and question whether these are the same cultures with the same problems or whether they are different. I discuss possible explanations for apparent similarities, describe how cultural change occurs and conclude by drawing out the implications of focusing on culture as a threat to patient safety.

Marching to the Left? Programmatic Competition and the 2017 Party Manifestos

Abstract: This article analyses the content of the 2017 general election manifestos, and introduces the latest estimates from the Manifesto Project to explore recent ideological movements in the British party system. It reports the changing policy emphases in recent Conservative and Labour manifestos and the ideological positions of the major political parties in 2017. It finds that Theresa May’s party produced its most left-wing manifesto since 1964, and that Jeremy Corbyn’s party produced its most left-wing manifesto since 1992 and the election before the advent of New Labour. The article also finds that the ideological space between the Conservatives and Labour opened up in 2017, and that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists published comfortably the most right-wing manifesto.

What is the Norway Model? Mode of Affiliation or Political Compromise?

Abstract: ‘Taking back control’ was the Brexiteer mantra. The Brexit process has shown us that today’s Europe is so tightly interwoven that neither retreat (autonomy) nor flight (replace Europe with other parts of the world) is realistic. In effect, the Brexit process as it has unfolded thus far renders abundantly clear that the core issue for the UK is to work out how close a relationship it is to have with the rest of Europe. Establishing that is proving far easier said than done. The British public is presented with a range of choices, often simplified as ‘Canada’ versus ‘Norway’. PM May’s proposed Withdrawal Agreement, which was twice rejected in the House of Commons is a hybrid in the sense that it contains elements of both.

Food Brexit and Chlorinated Chicken: A Microcosm of Wider Food Problems

Abstract: This paper situates food safety concerns raised in the Brexit debate since the referendum and suggests that, although the issue of chlorinated chicken entered public discourse, it represents wider concerns about food safety standards. Food safety has had high resonance in the UK since the 1980s, but Brexit shows how it connects to wider concerns also raised about Brexit, such as impacts on healthcare, the effects of austerity on food poverty, the limitations of low waged employment, concerns about migration and labour markets, and regional economic disparities. Brexit’s impact on the UK food system is immense because food has been highly integrated into EU governance. While food standards can be portrayed as a single narrow issue, the paper suggests it provides a useful lens with which to examine, interrogate and comprehend these wider Brexit politics. The complex realities of food politics and wider food system dynamics undermine any simplistic political narrative of ‘taking back control’.

What does Brexit Tell Us about Our Understanding of European Identity

Abstract: This paper reports on a number of Eurobarometer surveys undertaken by the European Commission as a way of reflecting on Brexit and the challenges it poses to European identity. Our work with the surveys has been undertaken in the context of developing an educational game (RU EU?) which will explore European identity. European citizenship and identity have been strongly promoted by the EU but, while they appear to have been accepted at an elite level, the EU – and the UK in particular – have so far not constructed a narrative which has been supported by ‘ordinary’ citizens. Brexit has therefore exposed the failings of European elites in this regard. That said, there is some evidence that the complexities of Brexit have led to a strengthening of European identity in the other EU 27 countries.

NHS Inquiries and Investigations; an Exemplar in Peculiarity and Assumption

Abstract: There is little research focussing on how bereaved families experience NHS inquiries andinvestigations. Despite this gap, there is a consistent assumption that these processes providefamilies with catharsis. Drawing on my personal experiences of NHS investigations over afive-year period after the death of our son, Connor Sparrowhawk, I suggest the assumptionof catharsis is misplaced and works to erase the considerable emotional ‘accountability’labour that families undertake during these processes. I further question whether inquiries orinvestigations are an effective way of holding stakeholders to account. I conclude with twopoints: first, qualitative research is needed to better understand bereaved family experiencesof inquiries and investigations and second, the ‘lessons learned’ objective underpinninginquiries should be replaced with ‘leading to demonstrable change’, which is what familiestypically want.

The UK Politics of Overseas Voting

Abstract: The enfranchisement of non‐resident citizens has always been controversial in the UK, where for historical reasons, voting rights are not as closely associated with citizenship as elsewhere. The introduction of ‘overseas’ voting in the 1980s by the Conservatives was contested by Labour as a form of ‘international gerrymandering’ since expatriates were widely assumed to be disproportionately wealthy and therefore more likely to vote Tory. Expatriate campaigners have been increasingly vocal in denouncing the ‘electoral injustice’ of the ‘fifteen‐year rule’ which disenfranchises them after fifteen years abroad, and the exclusion of so many from the EU referendum highlighted their cause. A recent private member's bill proposing ‘votes for life’ for UK expatriates aimed to meet their demands to abolish the time restriction, now considered anachronistic. But their arguments were hijacked by historically embedded attitudes and disputes driven by party politics, ending in a dramatic and bewildering filibuster which this paper elucidates.

Why Right‐Leaning Populism has Grown in the Most Advanced Liberal Democracies of Europe

Abstract: Immigration and new class divisions, combined with a growing anti-elitism and political correctness, are often used as explanations for the strong gains for right-leaning populist parties in national elections across Europe in recent years. But contrary to what we might assume, such parties have been very successful in the most developed and comprehensive welfare states, in nations—such as the Nordic countries—with the best scores on economic equality and social inclusion and long established political and judicial institutions enjoying a high degree of popular legitimacy. As argued in this article, this seems to happen because a duopoly of the centre-left and centre-right political establishment has kept issues such as immigration and new class divisions off the public agenda and hence paved the way for rightleaning ‘disruptor’ populist parties with an anti-immigration agenda in times of increasing immigration.