Discuss this statement with reference to the political systems of the UK and the USA.

Although the notion of a turn out of zero per cent may seem fancifal, it must be noted that trends on both sides of the Atlantic are suggesting the shadow of apathy hangs more prominently with each passing election. Apathy once a term associated more singularly with the American political culture is now a problem for Western democracies as a whole. Apathy was perhaps most noteable in the recent General Election and Presidential Election results. In 2000 George Bush was elected by a reasonably credible 49.8% of the voters. Yet this mandate was provided by only 25% of those entitled to vote; as only 93 million out of the 196.5 million eligable to vote choose to do so. This figure is as poor as that of the 1924 election of Calvin Coolridge, which was clouded by the fact that African- Americans were not to gain full suffrage for another fifty years, the newly enfranchised women were in many cases unsure of how to utilitze their newly as yet unused vote. The following year in Britain Tony Blair was swept into power, by another "historic" Labour landslide, but was it really a landslide of popular support? In 1

In both America and the United Kingdom, systems which produce little of the revolutionary changes and improvements desired by the electorate, and politicians removed from the realities of the citizens desires, fabulating policy through spin and overshadowed by sleaze. Changes to the voting procedures and media coverage are treating the symptons not the cause of the problems. In order to address the issue of apathy, or more accurately the antipathy shown by the electorate to policy and politicians, must be to offer them what they want, policies of change, credible candidates who are representative of them, and electoral coverage that concentrates on the issues not on spin. Yet as Matthew Parris (Institute for Public Policy Research) pointed out "New Labour would rather win with a turnout of twenty five per cent, than loose on seventy five per cent" the same is true on both sides of the Atlantic, politicians are unwilling to make changes that they feel may compromise their electability, and while they continue to blame the antipathy that prevails in the UK and in America as Franz Lutz a Republican pollster commented "There's a frustration in American politics, there is an anger that the status quo doesn't work, that the leadership isn't listening to them" on contented apathy they will do nothing about it, to make a change to what goes on it is important that the electorate is encouraged to stand up and be counted, even if it is merely through spoiling their ballot paper, as if they fail to turn out on polling day politicians will continue to make excuses for why they are elected by an ever decreasing mandate and while they continue to do so, there will be fewer and fewer people turning out to elect them and eventually they will hold an election and nobody will come.

There is also the issue of party polairsation, a century ago in the United Kingdom parties had radically differing views, accompanied by violent clashes between left and right, yet now they all vie for the occupation of the centre ground, with similar policies based on the Margaret Thatcher concept of TINA (There Is No Alternative), as long as this view prevails no purposeful social change can occur. In America the political culture is similarily sterile, the American system avoids issues, Medicare, Social security, trade and budget deficits and the ever tightening noose of bureaucracy that is strangling the system, is subsitituted for phoney issues, unsolvable moral issues of an angry society, abortion, homosexuality and the like. Few meaningful changes are present in Manifestos, in speeches, infact on many issues the major parties in both the USA and the UK, are reading from the same hymn sheet.

Yet the impact of the media is not a purely an American preserve, although interviewers such as John Snow and Jeremy Paxman subject their "victims" to rigourous issue based grillings, in a style that many Americans would be grateful for, for although there are growing problems, as our system increasing seeks to emulate that of America, many news orientated programmes still offer issue based interviews as a standard part of the electorates television diet, something long replaced by the soundbite in America. In 2001 seventy per cent of the British public and had little interest in election related TV and a quarter said they ignored it altogether. Forty per cent of the British people admitted turning the TV over, from coverage of potentially the event with the greatest potential to change their lives, to watch "Coronation Street" or more probably "Who wants to be a Millionaire". In 1992 11.8 million viewers watched the BBC's elecion coverage, by 2001 only 4.9 million tuned in. Is this a product of bad coverage- have people merely grown tired of the 'Swingometer', I would suggest this is not the case. What people have grown tired of is fabulation as Nick Cohen suggests the media is now "Not spinning but drowning the issues". The media also dictates to a large degree who w

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tony Blair, Queen's Speech, United Kingdom, Labour Party, Jeremy Paxman, House Representatives, Mandelson June, Party Conventions, Paddy Ashdown, Lutz Republican, united kingdom, negative campaigning, opinion polls, president clinton, potential voters lay, type person, australian system, five cent, paddy ashdown, voters lay dead, closeness contest, party conventions, medicare social security, party political broadcasts,
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Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)