This is a democratic crisis: we must fix the MP-constituent relationship
4 min read
The life of an MP today looks nothing like it did half a century ago.
In the 1950s and 60s, MPs received a dozen or so letters each week. By 2018, offices were handling up to a thousand calls and emails a week – and that’s before you count the flood of social media messages.
On paper, this communication ought to leave constituents feeling their MP is just a message away. Yet public trust in politicians is at historic lows, mainstream parties are losing ground, and faith in our institutions is crumbling. So, what’s gone wrong?
Despite the deluge of correspondence, MPs are actually only hearing from a narrow subsection of society: the angriest, the loudest, or those in crisis. In recent research, Demos has spoken to MPs from across the political spectrum. Again and again, they described the same frustration – how hard it is to reach beyond the “usual suspects”. These are the familiar faces: local activists, tireless petitioners, and serial letter-writers. A small group monopolises MPs’ attention, while the vast majority remain unheard.
Worse still, the angry edge of political engagement frequently tips into abuse. A Speaker’s Conference survey earlier this year revealed the scale of the problem: 96 per cent of MPs reported experiencing threatening behaviour or communication, much of which happens online, where hostility thrives. The impact is chilling – 73 per cent of female MPs and 51 per cent of male MPs admit they avoid speaking on certain issues on social media because of it. That silencing effect amongst politicians is dangerous for politics and democracy alike.
Meanwhile, the majority of citizens – the people who aren’t firing off furious tweets or penning daily emails – slip into the shadows. They may be dissatisfied, but they show it through disengagement, not vitriol. A Constitution Unit study found that only one in four Britons has written to their MP in the past five years. For every constituent who makes noise, three simply tune out.
But make no mistake: resentment, frustration and disillusionment are building. Yet people are no longer turning to traditional democratic touchpoints, nor looking to mainstream leaders for solutions.
If we do not bridge this gap, we are at risk of tipping into a democratic doom loop, where trust in democracy is so low that it becomes nigh on impossible to use our political system to bring about the change we need. We cannot afford to let that happen.
One of the things we can do to help turn the tide is radically reimagine the relationship between citizens and their representatives. That starts with rethinking how MPs and public bodies engage.
This week, Demos publishes its report A Two-Way Street: The decline of the MP-constituent relationship – and how to fix it. It explores the growing pressures on MPs and sets out a new model of engagement designed to reach constituents who wouldn’t otherwise engage with their MP.
The model experiments with new incentives for participation, from monetary incentives to building trust that participation will result in impact. Engagement with a recruited group of constituents is designed to happen over multiple sessions, culminating in an action plan co-created with their MP to ensure that action is taken in a way that works for all.
The bond between MPs and the people they represent is not beyond repair. But it requires constructive and respectful dialogue to get it right. If we fail to act, the gap will widen and the public will drift further away. If we succeed, the prize is an upgraded democracy, fit to meet the challenges of our times.
If you would like to join Demos’s caucus of MPs interested in democratic innovation, or to find out how you could get involved in the piloting of our new engagement model for MPs, please get in touch with Lucy Bush, director of research and participation, at [email protected]
