Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to investigate trends in political and social participation since 1997 and to assess the impact of New Labour's attempts to increase the quantity and quality of citizen participation. We look both at formal ways of participating in political decision making processes – in this case, voting – and at the more informal ways people influence decisions that affect the nature, level and quality of public services they receive. We also look at social participation; that is, people's involvement in activities of community or social benefit, like volunteering and community organising.

Social and political participation is important for social inclusion because deprivation is about more than income poverty. The ability to take part in decisions that affect our lives is one way we are included in society. Political engagement and social interaction are two of the four types of activity people should be able to participate in to be considered socially included in the definition of social exclusion developed by the ESRC's Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) (Burchardt et al, 2002). Our participatory research has shown that residents in deprived areas also feel that “to be accepted as having useful ideas to contribute to society” and “to be involved in the community” are activities people should be able to participate in to be considered socially included (Richardson and Le Grand, 2002, p 13).