The outbreak of demonstrations against the anti-Islamic movie in Egypt, Libya and many other societies in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia has generated a mountain of commentary. Many American have argued that (a) it is false to blame  United States society (still less the American president) for the actions of one or two Californian hate-spewing fringe extremists; (b) the US culture is exceptionally tolerant by priorititising the principles of the 1st Amendment over restrictions on hate speech (c) other societies, especially Muslim-predominant societies, should become equally tolerant and accept religious pluralism.

But does the type of faith matter? Or is religious tolerance the product of the strength of religiosity, irrespective of whether the society is Muslim or Protestant, Orthodox or Buddhist? In particular, are Muslim societies exceptionally intolerant of people of other faiths, as much Western commentary assumes? And is the U.S. exceptionally tolerant?

In fact, new survey evidence demonstrates a strong link between the strength of religiosity and religious tolerance, irrespective of the predominant type of faith in each society.

The 6th wave of the World Values Survey (conducted in 2010-2012) measured the strength of religiosity by asking respondents to place themselves on a 10-point 'importance of God' scale. The survey also asked people to agree or disagree (on a 4-point scale) with the statement 'The only acceptable religion is my religion'. The results below show the strong link between the strength of religiosity and faith-based tolerance. It is true that Muslim-predominant societies such as Qatar and Morocco turn out to be both highly religious and least tolerant of other faiths. Central Asian 'stans' are also intolerant. But some other highly religious Catholic and Orthodox societies are also moderately intolerant, exemplified by followers of the Apostolic Church in Armenia, Christians in Ghana, and Catholics in Poland and Mexico. By contrast the most secular societies under comparison  also prove the most tolerant, such as Lutheran Sweden and Estonia, Catholic Spain, Protestant New Zealand, Buddhist South Korea.

Levels of economic development are also clearly at work behind these patterns, with the more affluent and educated societies usually displaying the most secular and tolerant profile. Education has long been found to strength social tolerance. The United States, by contrast, is very religious and in the middle of the distribution for religious tolerance, not exceptionally high like Sweden and New Zealand. Similar patterns are evident and the results remain robust if we compare alternative indicators, such as of trust in people from another faith.

Thus it seems likely, as demonstrated in detail elsewhere (Norris and Inglehart 2011) that social tolerance is being driven more by societal levels of affluence and poverty, and thus by the strength of religiosity, more than by any particular type of faith.



Source: The World Values Survey 6th wave 2010-2012. N. 42,345 in 29 societies. See www.worldvaluessurvey.org 

For further reading, see Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. 2011. Sacred and Secular. Cambridge University Press 2nd Edition.

We are in the process of developing a new survey monitoring expert Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI) and we need your help!

The survey plans to contact c.40 experts immediately after each national election (constituent assembly, presidential or parliamentary) to gather views about these contests. Experts will be drawn from many different fields, such as scholars, lawyers, election officials and journalists familiar with elections. We will seek a balance of local residents and international experts and we will aim to achieve c.25 replies per country, working with international agencies and regional networks to identify email contacts for suitable experts. The survey is planned to be repeated after each national contest. The aggregate results for each country will be published via the project website, broken down by question category, as well as through a standardized index measuring Perceptions of Electoral Integrity. National coverage is planned to be global. Over time, as results accumulate, we hope that this will generate valuable information for the research and policy-making communities.

It would be greatly appreciated if colleagues could look briefly at the beta testing version of the survey and if you could send us comments.

https://sites.google.com/site/electoralintegrityproject4/data-1/expert-survey

Colleagues may want to try completing the survey, to see if it works for the last election held in each country, or alternatively just send any criticisms, feedback, and ideas to electoralintegrity@gmail.com . Either way, we would greatly appreciate hearing your advice, no matter how critical. We want to develop the right instrument. Opportunities to comment on the beta testing process will close by 1st October 2012. The survey fieldwork will start in January 2013 and the preliminary results will be evaluated at the Electoral Integrity Project’s next annual workshop, to be held at Harvard 3-4th June 2012.

We look forward to hearing from you.

In addition, several new draft papers are also now available for comment via the website www.electoralintegrityproject.com

Pippa Norris (Harvard University and the University of Sydney), Andrew Reynolds (University of North Carolina) and Jorgen Elklit (Aarhus University)

In 2005, the International Organization for Migration estimates that among all world regions, Europe hosted the highest number of international migrants (70.5 million). At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the OECD estimates that about one in four or five residents were foreign-born in countries such as Australia (24%), Switzerland (24%), New Zealand (19%), and Canada (18%), as were one in eight in Germany (13%), the United States (13%), and Sweden (12%) OECD 2008).  Due to these developments, European countries which used to be relatively homogeneous in their cultural heritage, historical traditions, ethnic composition, language, lifestyles, and religious faith -- such as Denmark, France, and Sweden -- have become far more socially diverse today

Population flows are diverse. The rapid settlement of Muslim migrants into European societies, in particular, has raised important challenges for how European policymakers manage cultural diversity, maintain social cohesion, and accommodate minorities. This is one of the main reasons for the contemporary strength of anti-immigrant parties, as demonstrated by Marie Le Pen winning 18 percent of the vote for the Front Nationale in the first round of the French presidential elections, on a platform denouncing "Islamification.” The backlash against migration has shaped party politics in many European nations, in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden. More broadly, concern over Muslim migrants has been heightened by a series of extreme terrorist events attracting global headlines, particularly by 9/11 in the United States, the bombings directed against civilian targets in Madrid (2004), London (2005), and Mumbai (2008).

These events highlight the importance of understanding the process of assimilation, and in particular, how far do migrants carry their culture with them, and to what extent do they acquire the culture of their new setting? Answers to these questions not only have important political implications; they also help us understand theoretical debates about whether basic cultural values are enduring or malleable; and whether cultural values are traits of individuals or attributes of a given society.  Theories of cultural integration suggest that immigrants gradually absorb the values and norms which predominate in their host society, especially on an inter-generational basis. By contrast, theories of divergence suggest that distinctive social values and norms are enduring and deep-rooted within each nation, shaped by collective histories, common languages, and religious traditions, so that migrant populations are unlikely to abandon their cultural roots when they settle in another country. These claims can be tested empirically by examining whether the basic values of Muslim migrants are closer to those prevailing in their societies of origin or destination.

Evidence can be compared using evidence the five pooled waves of the World Values Survey and European Values Study, a global investigation of socio-cultural and political change from 1981 to 2007. The survey includes systematic data on public opinion in affluent post-industrial societies and in many diverse Islamic states containing Muslim-plurality populations, providing the broadest comparison available from any existing social survey. Societies in the World Values Survey can be classified by their predominant religion. The World Values Survey includes Arab states, both majority Sunni (such as Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt) and majority Shi’a (such as Iran and Iraq), as well as countries in Asia (Azerbaijan, Kyrgystan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia), Central Europe (Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso). This allows us to compare the attitudes of three groups: Muslims living in Muslim-predominant societies (termed Societies of Origin), Westerners living in Western societies (termed Societies of Destination), and Muslim migrants living in Western societies.

A series of 13 items were selected and developed into standardized 0 to 100-point scales to monitor cultural values towards gender equality, sexuality, religiosity, and democratic values. Comparisons were drawn among these three social groups, as shown in figure 1. It is apparent that Muslim migrants are consistently located on average in the middle of the value scales, being less conservative than Muslims living in Muslim Societies of Origin, but also less liberal than Westerners living in Western societies. In other words, the position of Muslim migrants proved to be located approximately half-way between the dominant values prevailing within their Destination and their Origins. It is also striking that although much of the European debate has focused on the attitudes and practices towards the roles of men and women, it appears that on the gender equality scale, Muslim minorities are in fact far closer to Western than to Islamic publics.

 

When analyzing the evidence, however, several controls need to be introduced for factors which typically influence social attitudes, such as education, age and sex. After all, Muslim migrants may well prove distinctive from their compatriots for many reasons; for example, younger groups, and those with greater educational qualifications or higher socioeconomic resources, may well find it easier to relocate. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) are most appropriate for this sort of analysis, including multilevel regression analysis. The results confirm that Muslim migrants living in Western societies are located roughly in the center of the cultural spectrum, located between the publics living in Islamic and Western societies. It is entirely possible—indeed, we think it rather likely—that some degree of self-selection may be involved:  those who choose to immigrate to the U.S. or to Spain may already have values that are relatively compatible with those of their future host country.  But even if this is true, these findings contradict the idea that immigrants simply import an unmodified version of the values of their own country into their new host country.  In the long-term, the basic cultural values of migrants appear to change in conformity with the predominant culture of each society. 

Details are forthcoming in Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. 2012. “Muslim integration into Western cultures: Between Origins and Destimations.” Political Studies 

Pippa Norris is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and also ARC Fellow and Professor of Government at the University of Sydney. Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu

Ronald Inglehart is Professor of Political Science in the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan and also Director, Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, Higher School of Economics Moscow and St. Petersburg. ringlehart@gmail.com

The Arab spring has been marked by the revolutionary downfall and removal of autocratic leaders in Tunisia (President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali), Egypt (President Hosni Mubarrak), and Libya (President Momar Gaddafi). Major protests, strikes, and demonstrations have occurred throughout the region, destabilizing regimes in Syria and Yemen. Stirrings of popular unrest during the 'Arab spring' have renewed debate about the regimes most likely to replace traditional autocracies in the region. These events have encouraged many commentators to hope that the Middle East and North Africa is experiencing the gradual transition from autocracy to secular democracies, where moderate Islamic parties, new constitutions, and elected governments gradually expand human rights, including religious freedoms, pluralism, and tolerance of diverse faiths. Preliminary results from the October elections in Tunisia suggest victory for the moderate Islamic party Ennahda. Yet it remains unclear whether the outcome will be similar for moderate forces in Egypt and Libya. Contemporary events remain in continuous flux, the final outcome of these developments are far from settled, and other commentators fear that the instability caused by the popular uprisings will allow openings for conservative and more extremist religious forces to come to power, enforcing stricter interpretation of Islamic law.

Do Muslim publics want secular democracies, characterized by religious pluralism, separation of religious and government authorities, tolerance of diverse religious beliefs and practices, moderate parties, and constitutions where no single type of faith is privileged, following the Turkish model? Or do they prefer regimes where constitutions reflect Islamic principles, spiritual authorities predominate in politics, conservative Islamic parties prevail, and religious courts enforce Sharia law, reflecting the Iranian model? Or, alternatively, do many Muslim publics fall somewhere between these two poles?

Many factors will probably determine the final type of constitutional settlements and the regimes which develop in the countries in the Arab region which are currently experiencing challenges to autocracy. The new settlements will be shaped by historical traditions, the type of political elite, levels of economic development, the power and role of the armed forces, and external pressures from the international community, among many other factors. But preferences in the mass culture are also likely to play a role in any constitutional settlement, especially where these are subject to popular referendum, as in Tunisia. It is therefore important to determine whether the general public in Muslim-plurality nations favors the Turkish model of secular democracy, the Iranian model of religious autocracy, or another type of constitutional settlement located between these poles.

Regimes can be classified using a four-fold typology which distinguishes preferences for liberal democracy (on the horizontal axis) and preferences for secular states, defined here as those favoring high levels of religious pluralism and freedom, on the vertical axis. Comparison of Muslim-plurality societies suggest that they are governed today by diverse types of regimes, which can be illustrated by the contrasts among Mali (exemplifying a secular democracy), Chad (classified as a secular autocracy), and Tunisia (as a religious autocracy).

	Low << Liberal democracy >> High
Low << Religious pluralism >> High	Secular autocracy	Secular democracy
	Religious autocracy	Religious democracy

Public preferences for each type of regime

What type of regime do Muslims publics prefer? The World Values Survey 1999-2007 provides data in a wide variety of societies to examine the distribution of public opinion towards secularism and democracy.

Preferences for a secular state are measured by two items: "How strongly do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?(i) Religious leaders should not influence how people vote in elections; (ii) Religious leaders should not influence government decisions."

Support for democratic principles is measured by the question: "I'm going to describe various types of political systems and ask what you think about each as a way of governing this country. For each one, would you say it is a very good, fairly good, fairly bad or very bad way of governing this country? (i) Having a democratic political system. (ii) Having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections; (iii) Having experts, not government, make decisions according to what they think is best for the country; (iv) Having the army rule."

Figure 1: Public preferences for regimes

The results of the comparison in Figure 1 shows that the publics in Muslim-majority societies displayed diverse preferences; hence people living in some countries, such as Tanzania and Morocco, favored secular democracy, while others such as Albania and Indonesia proved slightly less supportive of democracy although equally secular, and still others, such as Algeria, favored religious autocracy. Overall, therefore, although some assume commonality, the contrasts among Muslim-plurality societies stand out.

Source: More details can be found in Pippa Norris. 2011. 'Muslim support for secular democracy'. www.pippanorris.com

Now that the dust has settled after the May 2010 general election, and the outcome for women is clear, there are many reasons for disappointment.

Four women sit in the new cabinet (14%), led by Theresa May as Home Secretary, while Caroline Spelman is the new environment secretary, Cheryl Gillan is the Welsh secretary, and Baroness Warsi is minister without portfolio. The British cabinet lags far behind many European countries; Spain has 53% women in its Cabinet, while Germany has 37% and France 33%.

Overall 142 female MPs were elected to Westminster (21.8%) – more than one in five of the total members in the House of Commons. This was another steady increase, up from 128 or 19.8% of all members in 2005 – but only a modest gain. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union figures, after the election Britain ranks 55^th worldwide in the proportion of women in the lower house of parliament, lagging far behind the familiar litany of global leaders such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as European democracies such as Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. Despite the gains in numbers at Westminster, in fact Britain's international ranking slipped 10 places since 2005, because other countries – including many newer democracies – are advancing at a faster pace.

Labour continues to have the best record of the major parties, now with 81 women MPs (almost one third or 31%). The Conservatives made substantial seat gains, including those contested by women candidates, but still elected only 48 women MPs (15.7%). Meanwhile, despite all the egalitarian rhetoric, the Liberal Democrats actually managed to fall back to just 7 female MPs (12%), and they haven't nominated any for their five Cabinet posts.

	Conservative		Labour		Liberal Democrat		Total in all parties (*)
	PPC	MPs	PPC	MPs	PPC	MPs	N. of all MPs	% of all MPs
1979	31	13	52	11	52	0	19	3.0
1983	40	13	78	10	75	0	23	3.5
1987	46	17	92	21	106	2	41	6.3
1992	63	20	138	37	143	2	60	9.2
1997	69	13	157	101	140	3	120	18.2
2001	92	14	146	94	135	5	118	17.9
2005	118	17	166	97	142	10	128	19.8
2010	149	48	191	81	134	7	142 (*)	21.8

(*) Including all other UK parties (in 2010, the Greens, SNP, SF, SDLP, Alliance and Independent each elected one women MP.)

In a sense, this is all water under the bridge. But there are still important issues which need to be addressed.

In particular, right now only two candidates have declared themselves for the Labour party leadership contest – the bros David and Ed Miliband. Both have considerable potential as the next generation of rising Labour leaders. But where are the women? Harriet Harman, the Deputy leader of the Labour party, would have been an obvious contender, but she has quite firmly refused to stand. Other names which have been mooted in this context include Tessa Jowell, Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood), and Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury).

Ed Miliband, who is a personable candidate but without deep experience of high office, stood in part due to a grassroots web campaign among supporters.

If you could encourage any of the Labour women MPs to stand in the leadership contest, who would this be??

Coalition politics is a familiar process in most European countries. There are no guarantees of the final results, as polling day can bring many unexpected outcomes, sometimes generating month-long negotiations requiring grand coalitions of parties drawn from across the political spectrum in order to cobble together a government. Nevertheless during the election campaign, European parties often signal their willingness to collaborate with potential coalition partners, and which parties are outside this process, providing voters with clues about the eventual outcome.

In the United Kingdom, however, the British government coalition joining the fate of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties, announced yesterday in the Rose Garden of No 10, seems to have been utterly serendipitous for all concerned, even to commentators, pundits and the party leaders involved at the heart of this process. The outcome, the first governing coalition in Britain since the end of World War II, and the first ever Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition in history, was unexpected despite the long series of public opinion polls predicting a hung parliament. It was agreed by the party leaders only during the five days of negotiations following the election, after it became apparent that the Conservatives were the largest party at Westminster but without an overall parliamentary majority.

Why the surprise?

In terms of ideological and policy positions, for a decade the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party have always been closer; indeed in the 2001 and 2005 elections, the Comparative Manifesto Project estimated that the Liberal Democrat manifesto was more progressive and slightly to the left of the Labour party platform, especially on issues of taxation and proposed levels of social welfare spending. By contrast, although the Conservatives have moved closer to the center of the British political spectrum under the leadership of David Cameron, nevertheless they remained further to the right of their other main rivals. And on certain issues, notably Europe, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives remain miles apart.

But how are the parties placed by voters? Did the coalition, and the decision by Nick Clegg to join with the Conservatives rather than Labour, reflect the outcome that the British public wanted? During election night, Paddy Ashdown famously said that the people have spoken, but we still don't know what they have said. One problem was that the main exit polls, commissioned by all the major media organizations, failed to ask any questions beyond voting. So the coalition has generated a mountain of speculations offered by all sides but no systematic evidence. Those reading the tea-leaves often claimed that the British public 'wanted' a hung parliament but, in fact, this cannot be deduced from the outcome. Each citizen cast a particular vote in their specific constituency, but the final outcome was the collective result of millions of independent decisions.

One way we can throw light on this question is to turn to the 2010 British Election Study (BES) which has just been released. The BES data provides some revealing clues about what the electorate actually preferred. And in particular the results tell us something important about the second choice of Liberal Democrat voters. If the decision about entering a coalition with either Labour or the Conservatives were in the hands of Liberal Democrat voters, what would they have wanted?

The table below, drawn from the BES campaign panel survey among 1,355 respondents, reports how people voted on May 6^th and also reveals their second choice preference among those who voted but who really preferred another party. Among those in this group who cast a ballot for the Liberal Democrats, only 12% opted for the Conservative party as their second choice preference. By contrast, almost half the Liberal Democrat voters (48%) chose Labour as their second preference. Likewise, the Liberal Democrats were the 2^nd choice preference of four out of ten Labour voters.

In other words, it is not simply that the Labour and the Liberal Democrats parties are far closer in their manifesto policies and ideological values, but Liberal Democrat and Labour voters also recognized the close affinity in their willingness to switch votes. The Conservative party was in a far different position, where UKIP (to the right of the party) were their largest 2^nd choice party.

Thus the new coalition governing British politics has clearly shaken up the old pattern of British party politics. Whether the decision of the leaders will cause Liberal Democrat voters to move gradually closer towards the Conservatives in their electoral sympathies, or whether instead the Liberal Democratic party will eventually be punished by their supporters for entering this alliance, remains a fascinating question which only time will tell.

	How people voted on May 6th 2010
Among those who preferred another party	Conservative voter	Labour voter	Lib-Dem voter
Con 2nd choice	13	2	12
Lab 2nd choice	4	22	48
Lib-Dem 2nd choice	21	43	15
SNP 2nd choice	1	4	3
PC 2nd choice	0	2	1
UKIP 2nd choice	41	8	4
BNP 2nd choice	10	6	1
Green 2nd choice	2	9	11
Other 2nd choice	10	6	6
	100	100	100

Source: British Election Study 2010 Campaign Panel. F/w YouGov. N. 1,355

It is now official; after the May 6^th 2010 general election, and five days of detailed negotiations, the UK now has a Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government. The key aspects of the deal include the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, as Deputy Prime Minister, four more Liberal Democrat MPs with Ministerial posts in the new Cabinet, and broad agreement on a range of policy areas. This is the first coalition government in Britain in sixty-five years.

Does this represent a historic water-shed transformation of the British political system? Clearly the sign of two leaders standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the first press conference in the No 10 Rose Garden symbolizes a change in how things are usually done in British government. The leadership love-fest all looks very kumbaya. Skeptics point out, however, that there are serious challenges facing the new arrangement, not least the difficulties facing the British economy, with record levels of unemployment and a massive deficit which needs addressing. In foreign policy, there is Afghanistan. The parties are unexpected bedfellows, not least because the Lib Dems are far more progressive than the Labour party, and on numerous issues their election platform was diametrically opposed to Conservative policies, not least on the EU. It is unclear whether the coalition can last, even for the five years of government.

But will the new politics be a temporary arrangement, a short-term marriage of convenience arising unexpectedly from the close election result, or a longer-term decisive break with one-party majoritarian government?

The key issue determining this issue will be the pledge on electoral reform. The agreement between the parties is a pledge for a referendum on the Alternative Vote, where the MPs will be free to campaign for or against this issue. Now the real tragedy here is that the referendum should have been called for whether there should be any electoral reform. Period. As in New Zealand. Deciding in advance that there can only be one system on the table for debate will divide the reform camp, will limit the options which should be under debate, and which, if passed, will still not produce a more proportional electoral system. The fact is that the Alternative Vote is a majoritarian system; it maintains single member districts and requires any candidate to achieve a majority of votes to be elected. Voters express preferential votes, ranking parties in priority. If no candidates achieve 50% of the vote in the constituency, then the 2^nd choice preferences from the candidate with the smallest share of the vote are redistributed until one candidate does achieve a simple majority. This is equivalent to the 2^nd Ballot or runoff election, but without the need for two successive elections. Will this benefit small parties? Those in the center, such as the Lib Dems, are often the 2^nd choice party for many supporters of the major party. As such the LibDems will probably benefit from 2^nd choice redistributions. BUT they will still discriminate against smaller parties with geographically dispersed support, such as the Greens and the BNP.

It is unclear whether the public would vote 'yes' in favor of abandoning First-Past-the-Post (Single Member Plurality) system. The polls cannot be trusted since British public opinion currently remains soft on this issue and the answers are highly dependent upon the way that the question is framed. But the public has become more familiar with many other types of electoral system in the UK – whether the AMS system in Scotland and Wales, PR list in European elections, and other systems used in Northern Ireland and London contests. There may be enough of a plurality to favor getting rid of the transparent unfairness of the old system. Does this mean that the British public would favor AV? That is far less clear indeed. Breaking up the referendum question into two (do we want to change? If so, which system do you favor) would have been far wiser.

Nevertheless if passed – and this is a big if – AV would institutionalize coalition power-sharing agreements at Westminster. We would be back to the form of politics which was more characteristic of the inter-war era. Its been a long time coming. The British electorate has been shifting away from two party politics since the early 1970s. Despite this, British institutions and FPTP have frozen the old Labour and Conservative oligarchy in place at Westminster for decades. Now, at last, it appears as though party politics at Westminster may -- at last -- be catching up with the public.

UK General Election 6^th May 2010

The following provides a brief summary of the results of the UK general election held on 6th May 2010. Access to the 2010 constituency results data in Excel and PASW/SPSS formats is now available for downloading from my website wwwpippanorris.com under 'data'.

Contents

Table 1: UK scoreboard    2

Table 2: % Share of the popular vote (UK)    3

Figure 1: % Share of the popular vote (UK)    4

Table 3: % Share of seats (UK)    5

Figure 2: % Share of seats (UK) 1900-2010    6

Figure 3: Government Votes: Seats Ratio 1945-2010    7

Table 4: Government overall majority, 1900-2010    8

Figure 4: UK Electoral Turnout 1832-2010    9

Figure 5: Electoral system effects    10

Figure 6: May 6^th 2010 UK Election map    11

Table 1: UK scoreboard

Note: After 649 of 650 seats declared.

Source: news.BBC.co.uk

Table 2: % Share of the popular vote (UK)

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated

Figure 1: % Share of the popular vote (UK)

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated.

Table 3: % Share of seats (UK)

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated.

Figure 2: % Share of seats (UK) 1900-2010

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated.

Figure 3: Government Votes: Seats Ratio 1945-2010

Note: Calculated by % votes/% seats for the governing party. 2010 is estimated based on the assumption of a Conservative government

Table 4: Government overall majority, 1900-2010

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated.

Figure 4: UK Electoral Turnout 1832-2010

Source: Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. 2000. British Electoral Facts 1832-1999 Ashgate; updated.

Figure 5: Electoral system effects

Note: Estimated number of seats seats under the 6^th May 2010 share of vote, assuming no change in the distribution of votes and no legal electoral threshold.

Source: Estimates for AV and STV (with 3-5 MPs). Electoral Reform Society. May 10^th 2010. "STV & the parliament that might have been.."

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/news.php?ex=0&nid=469

Figure 6: May 6^th 2010 UK Election map

Is the news media part of the solution to promoting transparent and accountable democratic governance? Or are they part of the problem? On Tuesday 1^st December 2009, the release of a new World Bank study, Public Sentinel, debated this issue at the World Bank in Washington DC. The event brought together Sanjay Pradhan, Vice President, World Bank Institute, Philip Keefer, Lead Research Economist, Development Research Group, and the book's editor, Pippa Norris, Harvard University.

Within the broad context of the major issues facing the international development community, Public Sentinel: News Media & Governance Reform focuses on the performance of the news media as an institution in addressing the challenges of governance. The book seeks to consider three related issues: What ideal roles should media systems play to strengthen democratic governance and thus bolster human development? Under what conditions do media systems actually succeed or fail to fulfill these objectives? What policy interventions work most effectively to close the substantial gap which exists between the democratic promise and performance of the news media as an institution?

The panel discussed the evidence from the book concluding that the next steps would be to produce a practical toolkit which could help World Bank colleagues in country offices, as well as those working in the broader international community, identify the opportunities for effective intervention to strengthen the roles of the news media.

Copies of the new book can be ordered from The World Bank.

Publication Date: November, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-8213-8200-4. SKU: 18200. US$40.

To order, please click here 

To read the policy brief, click here (PDF)

More details are available from CommGAP, The World Bank.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTDEVCOMMENG/EXTGOVACC/0,,contentMDK:22343085~pagePK:64168445~piPK:64168309~theSitePK:3252001,00.html

It is a cliché to acknowledge the rapidly changing world of the mass media, from a static form of transmission from wireless and television sets in the living room, to communications arriving via a plethora of multimedia platforms, where my cable TV comes to me over WiFi to watch on my smart phone, radio is delivered on my IPod, and headlines from the news media are updated 24/7 online. All these developments complicate but also enrich the media environment. What is less often acknowledged is how far behind we are in monitoring use of news and information from these channels through internationally-standardized communication statistics.

UNESCO is the primary agency worldwide with the responsibility to standardize, gather and disseminate communication statistics. For decades national statistical offices counted newspaper circulation figures, and the distribution of television and radio sets, and related data, and UNESCO disseminated the information through their annual yearbook. But the limitations of this traditional approach have rapidly become apparent. At the same time, the international community has rediscovered the important economic and cultural role of 'creative industries', covering everything from music, dance and crafts through fashion, architecture and ceramics to movies, television, and the online world. Moreover the role of the media for development has also attracted new attention, with international agreement in March 2008 to adopt the UNESCO Media Development Indicators .

To catch up with developments, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics in Montreal is in the process of developing and piloting new surveys monitoring newspapers, broadcasting (television and radio), and movies. This week, UNESCO organized an Experts Workgroup meeting from 17^th-19^th November 2009 in San Jose, Costa Rica. The aim was to review the draft questionnaire, along with the accompanying technical notes for the survey completion and the eventual analysis of the data. After pilot tests, the survey is planned for roll out in 2010, with data available the following year.

Once finalized, the survey instrument will be distributed to national statistical offices for the annual collection of statistics. This may sound dry as dust. But in fact this ambitious initiative opens exciting new opportunities for the policy and research communities to understand the diffusion of the new media environment worldwide and the persistence of some old problems facing the role of the media for development. The UNESCO Media Development Indicators emphasize that media development needs to meet certain normative standards:

1. A system of legal regulations conducive to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity;
2. Plurality and diversity of media ownership;
3. Media should serve as a platform for democratic discourse, reflecting the diversity of views and interests in society;
4. Professional capacity building and civic society institutions underpinning freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity;
5. Infrastructure capacity sufficient to support an independent and pluralistic media.

The planned new UNESCO surveys on newspapers and broadcasting will not provide indicators capable of monitoring and comparing all these standards, but they will go a lot further than is possible at present, especially in terms of assessing the balance of private v. public sectors in broadcasting and newspapers. For the first time, the surveys will also facilitate a global comparison of number of hours devoted to certain types of broadcasting programs (such as news, education, sports, and drama) shown in different countries, as well as the gender diversity of the media workforce, the proportion of domestic and foreign ownership, and the availability of linguistic broadcasting, amongst other aspects.

The workgroup considered the proposed survey instruments and focused attention upon the technical notes which accompany it, grappling with many complex and detailed issues about how best to relate the new data to broader notions of media pluralism and diversity, reflected in the Media Development Indicators. The new media environment is so complicated today that any 'top down' approach to assess its structure can often only grasp at aspects which are inevitably partial. Hence we can measure the number of terrestrial TV channels broadcasting in a country, for example, but does that actually tell us anything in a world where national TV is supplemented by Hulu, You Tube and similar broadband streamlining sources, along with cable and satellite channels. We can measure the number of national daily newspapers with mainly (51%+) public, private or foreign ownership – but does this provide important insights about the primary sources of information available in any country where surfing the New York Times or listening to my local NPR station every morning is as easy in Boston as it is in San Jose or Shanghai? Only a 'bottom-up' approach --where representative sample surveys assess what information people use as their regular sources of information --can start to evaluate the diversity and pluralism of media access in any country with any accuracy. Individual-level data on media uses is increasingly collected for many nations worldwide in surveys such as the Gallup World Poll (covering 140 nations) and The World Values Survey (covering 90+). Expanding upon these sources, by matching them with the structural national data, would be very worthwhile for future research.

UNESCO will work with national statistical offices to develop the capacity to generate the new data. If this initiative succeeds, so that a comprehensive and accurate picture of the media environment can be assembled, the international data will be widely welcomed. What remains to be done, however, for a richer understanding of pluralism and diversity, is to match the new national-level data on the media ownership and structure more closely with additional datasets. This would allow analysts to compare systematically the typical contents of the newspapers and broadcast media, as well as individual-level patterns of usage. If this approach remains outside of UNESCO's role and capacities, it is hoped that other non-profit agencies and independent researchers concerned with media for development will utilize the new data. We urgently need to develop robust and comparable international indicators which combine the analysis of the media environment with an understanding of the media contents and audience.