Blick_UK Politics (9780198825555)_CH10

10.2 How it works 223

has important implications, including for the way in which people perceive politics, and their assessment of the value of taking part.

The social nature of politics has implications for pow- er relationships. While anyone can try to exercise power, perhaps working in combination with others, some people and groups are better placed to organize and to achieve the results they seek. The amount of power they possess can have some connection to their personal characteris- tics or their socio-economic status. A group that is more numerous or more likely to vote, for example, might find that governments are more likely to pay attention to its interests. As a consequence, that group can find itself in a more privileged position in society than others. For in- stance, a particular ethnic group—in the UK, the White cat- egory—might be numerically dominant and find itself in an overall position of advantage relative to some other ethnic groups. It is not just about numbers. Some smaller groups may achieve influence out of proportion to their size be- cause they are in an advantageous position of some kind (see Chapter 3 on lobbying ). Social characteristics, there- fore, have implications for politics, and politics in turn has implications for the nature of society. We discuss power and identity further in section 10.3 later in this chapter.

10.1.2 Identity and power There are also important connections between identity and power. As discussed in the introduction to this chapter, politics involves the public interaction between different individuals and groups. When they engage with each oth- er, these people and organizations often seek to achieve particular outcomes. We can define power as a group or an individual’s ability, when dealing with others, to get what they want (Beetham, 1991; see Chapter 1). Politics takes place within society and we cannot sep- arate it wholly from society. Political processes therefore reflect in some respects the features of that society. For instance, as discussed above, political parties seek to secure electoral support from particular social groups through their policies and political messaging.

10.2 How it works 10.2.1 The profile of the UK population

Welsh in Wales) was the main language (see Chapter 12). But 7.7 per cent said they had another main language, shown in Figure 10.2, with Polish the most widely spoken of the ‘Other’ main languages, at about 1 per cent or 546,000 speakers.

There are many ways of defining the characteristics of the population of the UK. The diversity of the UK, in terms of the varied characteristics of the population, is partly a con- sequence of patterns of inward migration over a number of decades, including from the former British Empire (see Chapter 13) and the European Union. Arrivals in substantial numbers from the West Indies, India, and Pakistan during the 1950s and 1960s led to a significantly changed profile for the UK population (Mortimore and Blick, 2018: 478). Ethnicity Figures 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 help to paint a picture of the UK’s profile according to the most recent census (taken in 2011). Figure 10.1 gives a clear view of the ethnic makeup of the England and Wales: people of white ethnicity remain by far the largest group, with Asian, black, mixed, or multiple and other ethnicities making up 14 per cent of the population. Language English is by far the most widely spoken main language for the UK as a whole; the census found that for 92.3 per cent of respondents in England and Wales, English (or English and

Mixed or Multiple Ethnicity

2% Other 1%

Black 3%

Asian 8% © Oxford University Pr ss

White 86%

White Asian Black Mixed or Multiple Ethnicity

Other

FIGURE 10.1  Ethnicity in England andWales at the 2011 census Source: Office for National Statistics, 2018