Political inequality: reasons for optimism? - Julia Cagé - An IFS initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation

Regarding constituency characteristics, we mainly rely on the UK Decennial Censuses: tracing the changes in constituencies over time and using the mapping tables provided in the censuses, we build constituency-level socio-demographic indicators, such as the average age of the adult population, the share of women, and the share of the population with a higher education degree. [...] Evolution of the age of the candidates, UK General Elections, 1917–2017 Note: The figure displays the evolution of the average age of all the candidates (solid blue line with dots) and of the elected candidates (dashed green line with triangles) running in General Elections in the UK between 1917 and 2017. [...] Evolution of the age of the candidates, depending on the party, UK General Elections, 1917–2017 Note: The figure displays the evolution of the average age of the candidates running in General Elections in the UK between 1917 and 2017. [...] But the correlation between the decline in the share of workers in the UK Parliament – a phenomenon out of all proportion to their declining share in the active population – and the increase in private donations to Labour from the late 1980s is nonetheless striking. [...] According to their estimates, the resultant weakening of the unions led to a 3.5% drop in the electoral score of the Democratic Party in presidential elections (as well as a fall in voter turnout) and a worsening of its results in elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate.