Political disengagement is often understood as a decrease in voter turnout and trust in governments. Yet academic research suggests there are several types of political disengagement, driven by different political and social beliefs and attitudes.

This Insight explores types of political disengagement and how common they might be in constituencies in Great Britain.

Types of political disengagement in Western democracies

Academic literature distinguishes between two broad types of political disengagement in Western democracies. Professor Paul Webb at the University of Sussex summarises these as “dissatisfied democrats” and “stealth democrats” and shows how they manifest in the UK.

Dissatisfied democrats are dissatisfied with how democracy operates, are keen to be much more involved and are mostly educated and well-off. Stealth democrats, who are typically less educated and less well-off, are also dissatisfied with democracy but don’t want to play an active part in it.

What about in Britain?

Using data on how people feel about politics and democracy in Britain from the 2019 British Election Study (BES), five groups can be identified (the ‘stealth democrat’ and ‘dissatisfied democrat’ groups most closely resemble the concepts above):

  1. Engaged representative democrats (about 23% of the sample): they talk about politics most days and pay a fair amount of attention to it. They are a little dissatisfied with democracy in the Great Britain and strongly disagree with the need for strong leaders and referendums. They agree with the statement that politicians don’t care about people like them.
  2. Stealth democrats (14%): they don’t talk about politics and pay little attention to it but agree that politicians do not care about people like them. They are a little dissatisfied with democracy, think the country needs a strong leader and neither agree nor disagree with a need for referendums.
  3. Dissatisfied democrats (19%): they discuss politics every other day and pay it a fair amount of attention but feel very dissatisfied with democracy and strongly disagree that the country needs a strong leader. They agree referendums are good and strongly agree that politicians don’t care about people like them.
  4. Engaged direct democrats (38%): they discuss politics some days and pay it a fair amount of attention. They are a little dissatisfied with democracy and disagree the country needs a strong leader, but think referendums are good. They agree that politicians don’t care about people like them.
  5. Unsure (6%): they pay some attention to politics but don’t know how often they talk about it, how satisfied they are with democracy, whether the country needs a strong leader or more referendums, and if politicians care about people like them.

Who is in these groups?

Using BES data about people’s characteristics and data about British constituencies (such as census data and recent elections data), we find that the people in the groups described above are also more likely to share certain demographic characteristics. These characteristics are summarised in the table below, which focuses on the more disengaged groups.

Characteristics of disengaged groups

Notes: Social grades are a widely known way of classifying people based on their profession, described in detail in this thought piece by IPSOS Mori. People in the CDE grades are manual and casual workers, as well as pensioners and unemployed people. ‘’Minority ethnic” in this table refers to all ethnicities other than ‘White British’ and ‘Any other White background’.
Source: HoC Library modelling using BES (panel study, Wave 17; 2019 General Election results file) and constituency level data
Probability ‘Stealth democrats’ ‘Dissatisfied democrats’ ‘Unsure’
More likely Younger (25-44)
Women
Renters
Voted ‘leave’ in EU referendum
CDE social grade		 Older (60-74)
Men
Lower or no qualifications
Voted ‘leave’ in EU referendum
Live in areas where more people voted ‘leave’ in EU referendum
Have a disability
Voted in 2019 General Election
Live in Scotland		 Young (16-29)
Women
No qualifications
From a minority ethnic background
CDE social grade
No disability
Didn’t vote in 2019 General Election
Live in South West England
Less likely 75+ years old
Degree-level educated
Voted in 2019 General Election		 25-29 years old Older (65+)
Degree-level educated

How are these groups spread across constituencies?

Using the same data, we can estimate the proportion of the population in each constituency who fall into each of the three more disengaged groups.

The tables below show the ten constituencies with the highest and lowest proportions of people in each group. They include both an estimate of this proportion and the range of values in which this proportion is likely to fall. This range indicates the uncertainty around the estimates based on our modelling but doesn’t take account of other areas of uncertainty, for example the possibility that people have not answered survey questions truthfully and the decision to include some variables but not others.

Constituencies in the top 10 have a higher proportion of people falling into one of the more disengaged groups while constituencies in the bottom 10 have lower proportions. For example, about 24.7% of people in Easington in County Durham are in the ‘stealth democrats’ group, compared with only about 6.7% in Bristol West. Data for all constituencies is included in the spreadsheet at the bottom of the tables in this Insight.

Estimated proportion of population who are ‘stealth democrats’

Top 10 constituencies (tenth place tie)

Constituency Proportion Range
Easington 24.7 21.0 – 28.3
Birmingham, Hodge Hill 23.5 19.3 – 28.4
Houghton and Sunderland South 23.4 20.5 – 26.5
Hartlepool 23.3 19.8 – 26.9
Washington and Sunderland West 23.3 20.5 – 26.4
Knowsley 22.8 19.7 – 26.2
Stockton North 22.6 19.9 – 25.6
Rhondda 22.6 19.4 – 25.8
North Durham 22.5 19.8 – 25.2
Aberavon 22.4 19.5 – 25.7
Blaenau Gwent 22.4 19.3 – 25.8

Bottom 10 constituencies

Constituency Proportion Range
Bristol West 6.7 4.9 – 8.6
Chelsea and Fulham 6.9 5.5 – 8.7
Kensington 7.3 5.7 – 9.3
Battersea 7.7 6.3 – 9.2
Brighton, Pavilion 7.7 3.9 – 12.4
Cities Of London and Westminster 7.7 6.3 – 9.3
Islington South and Finsbury 8.0 6.6 – 9.9
Hampstead and Kilburn 8.2 6.8 – 9.7
Islington North 8.2 6.6 – 9.8
Vauxhall 8.5 7.0 – 10.0

Estimated proportion of population who are ‘dissatisfied democrats’

Top 10 constituencies

Constituency Proportion Range
Glasgow East 23.3 20.1 – 26.4
Banff and Buchan 23.2 20.5 – 26.0
Glasgow North East 23.2 20.2 – 26.1
Doncaster North 22.7 20.5 – 25.2
Kingston upon Hull East 22.5 19.9 – 25.4
Barnsley East 22.4 20.1 – 25.3
Wentworth and Dearne 22.4 19.9 – 25.1
Blaenau Gwent 22.3 19.8 – 25.1
Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle 22.2 19.7 – 24.9
Rotherham 22.2 19.9 – 24.4

Bottom 10 constituencies

Constituency Proportion Range
Brighton, Pavilion 10.1 6.4 – 15.1
Battersea 11.5 9.8 – 13.2
Streatham 11.6 10.1 – 13.3
Tooting 11.9 10.4 – 13.3
Islington North 12.0 10 – 14.2
Bristol West 12.1 9.9 – 14.7
Dulwich and West Norwood 12.1 10.3 – 14
Hackney North and Stoke Newington 12.1 9.9 – 14.5
Putney 12.5 10.9 – 14.2
Vauxhall 12.5 10.7 – 14.4

Estimated proportion of population who are unsure

Top 10 constituencies (tenth place tie)

Constituency Proportion Range
Birmingham, Hodge Hill 20.2 15.6 – 25.3
Birmingham, Ladywood 16.8 13.4 – 20.3
Birmingham, Perry Barr 16.6 13.1 – 19.9
Hayes and Harlington 15.3 12.7 – 18.3
Barking 15.2 12.6 – 17.9
Birmingham, Yardley 15.2 13.1 – 17.6
Wolverhampton South East 15.2 12.4 – 17.8
Preston 14.9 12.9 – 17.2
East Ham 14.7 11.9 – 18.1
Warley 14.6 12.0 – 17.7
West Bromwich West 14.6 12.4 – 16.8

Bottom 10 constituencies (tenth place tie)

Constituency Proportion Range
Richmond Park 4.2 3.1 – 5.3
Esher and Walton 4.4 3.5 – 5.5
Chesham and Amersham 4.6 3.7 – 5.5
Cities Of London and Westminster 4.6 3.5 – 5.9
Mole Valley 4.6 3.8 – 5.5
Chelsea and Fulham 4.7 3.3 – 6.4
Henley 4.7 3.9 – 5.6
South West Surrey 4.7 3.9 – 5.7
Winchester 4.7 3.7 – 5.8
Derbyshire Dales 4.8 3.9 – 5.9
Kensington 4.8 3.4 – 6.6

Source for all tables: HoC Library modelling using BES (panel study, Wave 17; 2019 General Election results file) and constituency level data
Download all the data in .xlsx format (60kb)

Comparing groups and constituencies

Constituencies with higher proportions of people in one of the more disengaged groups also feature among the constituencies with the lowest turnout at the 2019 General Election, including Easington, Glasgow North East, Kingston upon Hull East and Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, and Preston.

Despite substantial differences in the form of political disengagement between the ‘stealth democrat’ and ‘dissatisfied democrat’ groups, the Blaenau Gwent constituency appears in the top ten for both types. Out of the bottom ten constituencies, five are the same for these groups: Battersea, Bristol West, Islington North, Vauxhall and Brighton, Pavilion.

Among the constituencies with the lowest proportion of ‘unsure’ people, three are also among those with the lowest proportion of ‘stealth democrats’: Chelsea and Fulham, Cities of London and Westminster, and Kensington.

This raises interesting questions both about the constituencies with higher proportions of politically disengaged people and about those people themselves. What kind of circumstances encourage disengagement: a lack of opportunities and support, life experiences, social deprivation, safe seats?  While this Insight cannot answer those deeper questions, anyone interested in finding out could start by exploring conditions in the constituencies with the highest proportions of disengaged people.

Further reading

About the author: Elise Uberoi is a researcher at the House of Commons Library, specialising in statistics on Parliament and elections

Acknowledgement: The Library would like to thank Prof Chris Hanretty (Professor of Politics, Royal Holloway University) for guidance on the modelling in preparation of this Insight.

Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash

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