Whose Democracy? A study of views from Norwich and the surrounding 'back-water' areas.

英国脱欧公投使人们注意到了“两个英格兰”的存在(詹宁斯和斯托克2016)，其中文化价值观将“民粹主义-民族主义者”与“世界自由主义者”区分开来(弗林德斯，2018年，Inglehart和Norris，2016，詹宁斯等人.2017)。前者感觉被政治阶级疏远了，他们的自由、世界主义价值观与他们自己的传统威权价值观形成了鲜明对比(Goodwin和Heath 2016，Inglehart and Norris 2016)。由于缺乏信心，政治系统无法代表他们的关切，导致了对议会主权的强烈反对，并要求恢复“普通人”作为主要决策者的地位(Bovens和Willie，2010)--这一观点在2016年脱欧运动的“夺回控制权”言论中得到了呼应。政府认识到，民主进程需要变得以公民为中心，通过机会“参与影响他们生活的决策”来“让人民重新获得控制权”(HM政府2018：53)。然而，我们对公民眼中的“以公民为中心”的过程应该是什么样子知之甚少。理解公民想要什么样的民主安排对于能够消除挫折感和修复民主制度至关重要(Bengtsson，2012)。然而，有关民主偏好的文献受到了批评(Bengtsson 2012&Jennings et al.2017年)，用于探索“具体支持”而不是“扩散支持”--分别定义为对现有或普遍的政治安排和理想决策系统的7/10概念的感觉(Easton 1975)。换句话说，现有的研究(例如，Allen&Birch 2015，Coffe&Michels 2014)倾向于测试对预先设定的决策安排的支持，而不是揭示没有确定优先顺序的偏好。拟议中的研究将提供对扩散支持的丰富理解，回答“公民更喜欢哪种民主决策过程？”鉴于“两个英格兰”的分歧正在重塑我们的社会和对政治行为的研究(詹宁斯和斯托克2016)，以及进一步探索这种分歧的必要性，了解分散支持调查的重要性将通过调查决策过程的偏好如何与“民粹主义民族主义者”和“世界自由主义”价值观相关联来实现。诺福克郡被选为研究地点，因为它特别适合这一目标，因为它是许多农村“死水”地区的所在地，包括大雅茅斯(英国脱欧投票第五高)和更国际化的城市诺里奇。除此之外，诺福克还展示了不同的、在某种程度上无法解释的民主参与模式。在2017年英国脱欧后，英格兰和威尔士96.7%的选区投票率上升，大雅茅斯的投票率下降--实际上是英格兰南部最低的；在整个英格兰，脱欧公投的投票率高于大选，但北诺福克的情况正好相反。这种模式的异质性很可能反映了关于谁应该决定的过多的对比和混合观点--这项研究旨在揭示和分析这一点。

The Brexit vote brought to attention the existence of "twoEnglands" (Jennings and Stoker 2016), where cultural valuesseparate 'populist-nationalists' from 'cosmopolitan-liberals'(Flinders, 2018, Inglehart and Norris, 2016, Jennings et al.2017). The former feel alienated by the political classeswhose liberal, cosmopolitan values stand in contrast withtheir own traditional, authoritarian values (Goodwin andHeath 2016, Inglehart and Norris 2016). A lack of faith inability of the political system to represent their concerns hasresulted in a backlash towards parliamentary sovereignty,and demands to restore the 'ordinary man' as the principaldecision maker (Bovens and Willie 2010) - a sentimentechoed in the 'take back control' rhetoric of the 2016 Leavecampaign.The Government recognises the need for democraticprocesses to become citizen focused, to "give people back asense of control" through opportunities to "participate in thedecisions that affect their lives" (HM Government 2018:53).However, we know very little about what "citizen-focused"processes ought to look like in citizens' eyes. Understandingwhat kind of democratic arrangements citizens want iscrucial to be able to counter feelings of frustration and repairdemocratic institutions (Bengtsson 2012). Yet, the literatureon democratic preferences is criticized (Bengtsson 2012 &Jennings et al. 2017) for exploring 'specific support' ratherthan 'diffuse support' -defined, respectively, as feelingstowards existing or prevailing political arrangements and as7 / 10notions of an ideal decision-making system (Easton 1975). Inother words, existing studies (e.g. Allen & Birch 2015, Coffe& Michels 2014) tend to test the support for preconfectioned decision-making arrangements rather thanunveiling preferences not determined a priori.The proposed study will provide a rich understanding ofdiffuse support, answering the question "Which democraticdecision processes do citizens prefer?" Given the extent towhich the bifurcation into 'two-Englands' is reconfiguring oursociety and research into political behaviour (Jennings andStoker 2016), and the need for further exploration into thenuances of such bifurcation, the importance ofunderstanding the investigation of diffuse support will becomplemented with an enquiry into how preferences fordecision-making processes are associated with 'populistnationalists' vs 'cosmopolitan-liberal' values. The county ofNorfolk is chosen as a research site as it lends itself to thisaim particularly well, being home to numerous rural'backwater' areas including Great Yarmouth (5th highestLeave vote in the UK) and the more cosmopolitan city ofNorwich. In addition to this, Norfolk displays contrasting andto some extent unexplained patterns of democraticengagement. While in the 2017 'Post-Brexit' General Electionturnout increased in 96.7% constituencies in England andWales, in Great Yarmouth it decreased -and was in fact thelowest in the South of England; throughout England theturnout was higher in the Brexit vote than it was for generalelections, but the opposite was observed in North Norfolk.The heterogeneity of such patterns likely reflects a plethoraof contrasting and hybrid perspectives on 'who shoulddecide' -which this research aims to unveil and analyse.