The spill-over and displacement effects of implementing election administration reforms: Introducing individual electoral registration in Britain

James, Toby S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5826-5461 (2014) The spill-over and displacement effects of implementing election administration reforms: Introducing individual electoral registration in Britain. Parliamentary Affairs, 67 (2). pp. 281-305. ISSN 1460-2482

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Abstract

The UK government intends to replace household electoral registration with individual electoral registration (IER). This article assesses the likely effects of the reform using an innovative methodology. A thematic analysis of extensive qualitative interviews with local election officials, conceived as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ responsible for implementing elections, was undertaken. Their local knowledge provides evidence that IER might improve the security of the registration process. However, it is likely to lead to a considerable decline in levels of electoral registration which might be highest amongst the young, elderly and minority populations; is a more resource-intensive method of compiling the electoral register; will pose new issues with data and technology for election officials; and, is likely to have a number of further ‘spill-over’ effects on other aspects of election administration, such as the cutting of other services. The article encourages further research using the local knowledge of street-level bureaucrats to examine the ‘back-office’ effects of election administration reforms since they may further our understanding of the complexities and unintended consequences of institutional reforms which might be overlooked in quantitative studies.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Political, Social and International Studies (former - to 2014)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics
Depositing User:	Katherine Humphries
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2012 12:40
Last Modified:	13 May 2024 10:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/39561
DOI:	10.1093/pa/gss032

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