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Is Data-Driven Politics Good for Democracy?

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorBen Worthy,Stefani Langehennig,Cat Morgan
Date01 June 2022
DOI10.1177/20419058221108779
Published date01 June 2022
22 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2022
Since 2005, a whole armoury of
transparency tools has been
developed that allows voters to see
what politicians at Westminster are
doing, or not doing, in their name. These
new instruments stretch from Freedom
of Information laws and Registers of
Financial Interests to third-party websites
and automated Twitter bots that scrape
government transparency releases. At the
centre, most famously sits TheyWorkForYou,
an online platform providing data on how
each individual Member of Parliament and
Peer has voted, their activity (or inactivity)
Is Data-Driven
Politics Good for
Democracy?
From FOI to TheyWorkForYou, we have more data about British
politics – and politicians – than ever before. But is all this data
good for democracy? Ben Worthy, Cat Morgan and Stefani
Langehennig investigate.
at Westminster, and their expenses and
interests.
At the push of a button you can see
how an MP or Peer has voted on an issue,
who has given them money or if they have
outside interests. These data then become
tweets and newspaper stories, zooming in
to look at one MP’s vote or zooming out
to look at which Members of the House of
Lords are claiming allowances. The data have
helped create rankings and measurements
of everything from climate change voting
records to the most or least ‘value for
Political Insight June 2022.indd 22Political Insight June 2022.indd 22 01/06/2022 11:4901/06/2022 11:49

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