Political 'Realism' in an Election Year | Campaign for Social Science Annual Sage Lecture 2023
This year's Campaign for Social Science Annual Sage Lecture was delivered by Professor Gary Younge FAcSS, University of Manchester, who explored Britain’s electoral culture through the lens of political ‘realism’.
With a UK general election looking highly likely to take place in 2024, Britain’s politicians have a number of urgent challenges to address, from the cost of living crisis and rising rents to an underfunded NHS and public infrastructure that is unfit for purpose. In this lecture Gary argues that not only will the main parties fail to offer solutions to these problems but, in the name of 'realism', they will also avoid any substantial engagement with the issues causing them.
Gary suggests that it's increasingly becoming clear that our electoral culture is on a collision course with political, economic and environmental realities and that these contradictions occasionally play out in real time. For example in the wake of the joint warmest September on record for the UK, political parties backtracked on their environmental commitments.
Gary also argues that none of this would be possible without a complicit media, which draws from the same social class as the political class and is focussed not on what will change and what needs to change but only who will win. He explores how, while this remains the case, voter disillusionment with the status quo grows, further aggravating the dislocation between the political class and the popular mood.
Professor Jane Green FAcSS, Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre and Professor of Political Science and British Politics, University of Oxford, will deliver a response to Gary's lecture.
The views and opinions expressed in this event are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Political ‘Realism’ in an Election Year was part of Election 24: Ideas for change based on social science evidence, a Campaign for Social Science project which drew on a range of social science research to suggest evidence-based social policy directions in the run up to the UK general election in 2024.
About Gary Younge
Gary Younge joined the University of Manchester in 2020 from The Guardian, where he was a columnist, US correspondent and editor-at-large. He has written six books and won many awards including the 2023 Orwell prize for journalism. Throughout his career both his journalism and books have covered youth violence (both in the US and the UK), social movements (particularly the US civil rights movement), inequality, race, immigration, identity and politics. Between 2009 and 2011 he was the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor for Public Policy and Social Administration at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Currently a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow of Type Media in the US and an editorial board member of the Nation magazine. As a broadcaster he has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.
About Jane Green
Jane is a Professor of Political Science and British Politics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, where she is also Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre. Jane is also Co-Director of the British Election Study and President of the British Politics Group of the American Political Science Association. Jane has featured as an Elections Analyst for ITV News' twice BAFTA nominated live election results programmes and was winner of the 2015 Political Studies Association ‘Research Communicator of the Year’. Jane is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
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