Voter turnout for the 2024 UK elections was 60%, the lowest in more than 20 years. Mukrika Banerjee They argue that Britain needs to foster a democratic culture in which citizens have greater involvement not just in elections but also in political matters, otherwise democracy and its institutions are at risk of collapse.
As a social anthropologist, I have studied rural democracy in India for more than 20 years. But in the recent UK general election, for the first time I campaigned for a political candidate in a London constituency. I went door-to-door asking voters whether they had decided who they would vote for and what issues they cared about most. What I found was disturbing.
In India, you can have a lively and informed political debate with almost anyone, even if you are poor or illiterate, but here, mainly in comfortable suburban Britain, many people didn’t even know that a national election was imminent, and many didn’t care, regarding all parties as “the same” and dismissing all politicians as self-serving.
In India, you can have a lively and informed political debate with almost anyone, even if you’re poor or illiterate, but here, mainly in comfortable suburban Britain, many people didn’t even know that a national election was coming up, and many didn’t care. They saw all parties as “the same” and dismissed all politicians as self-serving. Even among those who showed a modicum of interest, the issues raised were mostly small and local: bad pavements, potholed roads, illegal dumping, overgrown trees. Many were undecided and said they would decide on the day, or at the polling booth.
My experience coincides with the fact that, despite polling stations being within a short walk of most people in the UK, national turnout was 60%, the second lowest since 2001.
What does this say about the state of British democracy? This apathy seems to reflect a wider disinterest in politics, and, I would argue, a lack of understanding of the role of individual citizens in the country’s democratic politics.
After Trump’s loss in the 2020 US election, Obama sent an encouraging message. The president began by thanking voters who worked hard to vote, volunteer and organize during the election, saying: “Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy this moment.” But he continued: “So stay engaged. I know it’s exhausting. But the survival of our democracy requires that we remain engaged and engaged as active citizens, not just during election time, but throughout it all.”
This idea of ”active citizenship” was first proposed by the young Machiavelli virtue (his Lectures on Livy) – Active citizen participation in public affairs between elections, ensuring that elected representatives act in the interests of the people and the country they serve, not in their own interests, is a lengthy and tedious process — “exhausting,” as President Obama said — but without it there can be no true democracy.
Democracy is not just a collection of institutional arrangements – elections, parliaments, free media, and the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers – that help create and support a democratic culture of transparency, dignity and recognition of the rights of all citizens.
But the responsibility for creating this democratic culture cannot be left solely to these institutions or elected representatives. It must be carefully cultivated by citizens themselves. Citizens need to stay informed, scrutinize new policies, not be afraid to protest, take part in demonstrations, organize and sign petitions, build solidarity with strangers over common problems, and hold their government accountable.
Democracy is not realized through elections alone, but needs to be nurtured carefully even after the elections are over.
My study of democracy while living with paddy farmers in West Bengal has shown me that being an active citizen is no different from cultivation itself. Democracy does not happen with elections, but it needs to be cultivated carefully even after the elections are over. A new government can be seen as the beginning of a new crop cycle, with the best plants chosen for the soil, but citizens need to work hard every day to stay active (farmers don’t have weekends off!). This work, as anyone who has tried to rally support for an issue knows, is often arduous and can involve countless conversations to convince others, drafting letters, traveling to meetings, trying to bring people together, etc. And as farmers point out, such hard work also requires patience. A garden does not grow overnight, and yelling at plants will not make them grow faster. Vigilance is needed at every stage. Pests and weeds (division and conflict) can appear out of nowhere and need to be eradicated immediately.
Developing a democratic culture requires cultivating the self with discipline, dedication and determination, which, as great figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King emphasized, can only emerge through repeated practice, failure and learning.
Democracies can easily become corrupted, governments make bad decisions, and activist coalitions can crumble due to egos and tensions, leaving little room for complacency. But above all, cultivation is about hope. We plant seeds in the hope of a strong and healthy plant, not a stunted or diseased one. It’s the same in politics. The hard work of cultivation is a down payment on the promise of a better future, and cynicism towards politics and politicians is not productive. Gramsci famously called for being pessimistic about the intellect but optimistic about the will, which means remaining determined to be skeptical of ourselves at times (sound advice, especially for academics!). Thus, to cultivate a democratic culture, we need to cultivate ourselves with discipline, dedication and determination, which can only emerge through repeated practice, failure and learning, as great figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King emphasized.
The Indian farmers I worked with know this. It is perhaps no coincidence that voter turnout in the villages I surveyed exceeded 80 percent, above the national average of 67 percent. India also witnessed one of the most successful protest movements by farmers. In 2020 and 2021, they held disciplined, non-violent encampments for over a year on the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi, forcing the central government to repeal laws that changed agricultural markets that had been introduced without consultation. In the general elections held in 2024, the incumbent ruling BJP party lost seats in farmer-majority areas.
Therefore, fostering a democratic culture based on civic engagement and participation in between elections is the only way to ensure that democratic institutions such as elections remain vibrant and effective.
Therefore, fostering a democratic culture based on civic engagement and participation between elections is the only way to ensure that democratic institutions such as elections remain vibrant and effective. Active citizens between elections generate political engagement on issues and encourage citizens to use their vote to express their political preferences during elections and, as studies from India show, as an expression of their rights as citizens. Only with such active citizens can democracy thrive beyond the last election and deliver prosperous results in the next one.
All articles published on this blog give the views of the authors, and not the position of the LSE UK Department of Politics and Policy, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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