Politics for All
Politics for All
Everyone is exposed to politics each day. Political decisions and discourse shape how we think, how we behave, our education, employment, financial security and health. Therefore we believe everyone should be equipped with the skills and knowledge to participate in the democratic processes that shape political decisions and discourse. Ultimately we believe this will lead to more robust policymaking and improve trust in our political system.
As well as taking direct action to increase politicial literacy and participation, we're campaigning for systemic change to:
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Political education for all: Every child should leave education with an understanding of how they can engage with democratic processes and take social action.
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Diversify politics: We need people from all walks of life involved in the policymaking process. Therefore we must break down barriers to careers related to our democracy and policymaking.
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Measure political literacy: So that we can isolate the impact of political literacy on participation, and target and evaluate efforts to increase political literacy.
With funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRSST) IHAV commissioned the think tank 89 Initiative to help us conduct an academically rigorous feasibility study of whether it is feasible to develop a measure of political literacy. The aim of the measure is to:
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identify those with the least political literacy and allow for targeted interventions;
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provide a benchmark that could be used to advocate for and measure progress towards being a politically literate society; and
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make it possible to evaluate different methods of delivering political education against a standardised measure of political literacy.
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