Voting

Scotland had a huge turnout in the referendum. The reason being put forwrd was that people were motivated, excited and engaged with the issues. It supports the idea that individuals will register and turn out to vote when they are inspired by the debate and are convinced of the importance of the issues at stake. Similar high turn-out fiigures are only matched where voting has been made compulsory or in dictatorship manipulated elections. Those who were expected not to vote, the supposed underclass, the lumpen-proletariat as they are ungraciously called by some , living in the sink estates on the periphery of social inclusion put aside their fear of the debt-collectors and the benefit agencies discovering co-habitating couples through names and addresses registered to cast their yes or no ballot. The young over-16s who we are told are uninterested by old fogey politics and are  just into fashion and music were given the vote and schools became important arenas for debate. 

Meanwhile, the general election in May General Election the forecast of the turn-out is pessimistic – over 8 million potential voters have not registered and who knows what proportion who actually have bothered to register will make the effort to get to the polling station, especially if it rains. 

I'm now interested in what the Scottish referendum tells us about democracy and thought there would be an avalanche of research stemming from it with all manner of sociologists and political analysts producing stats and theories that would reinforce the SPGB case on the power of the vote and its revolutionary potential. I have been sadly disappointed.  The Scottish result did provide us with ammunition to use against the anarchists but i expected follow-up from various academic sources to point the gun so we all we needed to do was pull the trigger. I have not come across any real research on the topic. It is as if the spectacular turn-out from the Scots was an aberration or even unwelcomed by the elite.

Anybody got any links that i can follow up on a genuine socialist analysis of the referendum and the vigourous campaigning that took place during it that we should discuss and put to use for the upcoming election to combat our critics that we are wasting our cash by contesting elections.