POLIS researchers call for petition platforms to reach 'beyond the usual suspects'

Researchers from the School of Politics and International Studies have written about engagement with political petitions for the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The Centre for Democratic Politics’ Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Dr Blagovesta Tacheva have written an extended piece for LSE called ‘Petition platforms must reach beyond the usual suspects’. In the blog post, they ask whether petitions are ‘a valuable democratic tool or do they simply amplify the views of those who are already politically engaged?’

The piece considers the barriers to certain disadvantaged groups in society to engaging with political petitions and emphasises the need for proactive measures to change this. 

The article, which is available to read on the LSE blog website, is based on research conducted by Professor Leston-Bandeira and Dr Tacheva which was funded by Research England. This research was presented at the PSA Parliaments which was hosted by LSE’s Department of Government in November 2023.