Brief Research Proposal submitted to Dr Peter Webster, Manager, AADDA project, IHR by Dr Carole Taylor, Researcher/PA, House of Lords, Palace of Westminster 29 June 2012 Topic: The Decline of Parliamentary Political Engagement, 2004-2010: implications for 2012 and beyond Background: In 2004, the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement looked at the dramatic drop in voter turnout in the 2001 general election and concluded that this downturn, though unfortunate, was mitigated by an increase in other forms of political activities (protest politics etc).1 Nevertheless, the downward trend in political participation has continued, although not quite as we might have expected. The abuse of expense claims by MPs in 2009, for example, scandalised the public yet the Report in 2010 found that trust in the political process prevailed and 60% of respondents still viewed Parliament as “worthwhile”. The picture in 2012 is far more sobering. Public attitudes toward the political process in the UK have “hardened”, with interest in politics dropping to 42% (from a 58% high the year before), and the number of people certain that they will vote in a national election dropping to 48% (again from the previous year’s high of 58%.2 Yet a recent study of the impact of the internet and social media on young users (15 to 25 year olds) in the USA, for example, shows encouraging signs of participatory politics across ethnic boundaries.3 The Problem to be Investigated: What has led to this dramatic decline in political engagement, and is the UK experiencing this decline uniquely? For the purposes of the present research project, I propose that we focus on the impact of the work of MPs and peers in the Westminster Parliament on the above attitude changes, between 2004 and 2010.4 Questions for the Web Domain Dataset: We are interested in sites which addressed some or all of the six core indicators of political engagement: knowledge and interest; action and participation; and efficacy and satisfaction (the indicators used by the Hansard Society’s Audit(s) of Political Engagement). Audit(s) of Political Engagement 2004-2012 all on www.hansardsociety.org.uk Report 2012, part one, p17 3 See http://www.mills.edu/news/2012/pressrelease-06262012-KahneDigitalMediaStudy.php accessed 27 June 2012. 4 Parliament is not the only driver of political engagement, of course, and more broadly this project also takes into account the work done by government departments; of Members of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies; and of parliamentary officials and think tanks such as the Hansard Society. A few cogent international comparators should also be sought. 1

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Could comparison searches of this huge cache of UK websites give parliamentarians an insight into changing public perceptions of the democratic process in the UK? Is it possible to carry out searches of the main social network forums in this period, with a view to producing a more detailed understanding of changes in political views – and new views – expressed over time? The House of Lords is the only parliamentary chamber in the world with a bipartisan blog. It would be immensely valuable if common political themes could be accessed in a way that produced a better understanding of bloggers’ and users’ political perceptions on the Lords of the Blog website between 2008 and 2010.5

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See http://lordsoftheblog.net/