Perception of political influence within the general population of the United Kingdom

Abstract

AbstractWhen reflecting upon politics, people express judgements about the political influence exerted by different institutions. However, the nature of these judgements remains to be studied by scholars. The paper explores this with a focus on the United Kingdom. Online, participants recruited from the general population judged the political influence of a variety of institutions such as parties, media and economic powers. Political institutions (e.g., the Conservative Party) were attributed the highest influence, followed by economic powers (e.g., banks), the media (e.g., BBC) and by marginal groups (e.g., laypeople without political expertise). Variability in judgement was explained by two factors: one capturing a tension between marginal groups and economic powers and the second between the media and political institutions. Ideology modulated the latter factor, with participants opposing tradition in politics attributing higher influence to political institutions over the media. These observations shed light on an important, yet poorly known, aspect of political thinking, namely, the perception of political influence.