With election day coming up, James Helm, the University’s Director of Communications, kicks off a series sharing what top academics think about some of the biggest issues facing the UK right now.
Leading up to July 4th, we’ll be sharing expert views on topics like misinformation and democracy, the economy and living standards, voter turnout, race and young voters, plus AI and its regulation. We’ll also hear from some Cambridge students voting for the first time.
Cambridge is a fantastic place to study politics or get involved in it. Back in the late 1980s, my year was actually the first group that could take what was called Social and Political Science throughout their entire undergrad degree all the way to finals.
As we moved into the 90s, one of our optional papers focused on global security – which basically meant environmental politics back then – and it was pretty groundbreaking at the time. Since then, that course has grown into what’s now known as Human, Social and Political Science (HSPS), which is hugely popular.
Of course, politics-and all those big questions this election brings-plus debates among leading politicians (some who studied here at Cambridge) spread across lots of academic fields. You can see this clearly from how diverse our contributors’ expertise is.
Every UK election has its own unique vibe and background. Some things have really changed since 2010’s surprising results: digital campaigning is sharper now; reaching voters through smartphones and social media is huge; plus there’s more worry about misinformation-which this series looks at closely. Trust in politicians, government, and media keeps dropping. Around the world democracy faces fresh pressures too.
That said, plenty of old-school parts of UK elections remain almost charmingly familiar: politicians knocking on doors or touring around meeting people-that colorful and sometimes frantic effort to connect with “ordinary voters” before everyone goes quiet ahead of casting their votes.
