Political Communication in Freefall: The British Case—and Others?

Abstract

The article designates certain current key features of British political communication, contrasting them with their counterparts two decades earlier. It specifies some systemic sources of those developments, which may be common (or becoming so) in other competitive democracies. It argues why this matters: A Machiavellian view of political communication is increasingly emerging, so emphasising an instrumental pursuit of power that citizenship is in danger of becoming little more than a form of noncommercial consumption. Finally, it proposes some institutional changes intended to counteract these disturbing latter-day trends.