Networks Based on Educational Background in the UK Conservative Party

Research Question

What impact does the education of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK House of Commons have on their political behaviour?

Significance

Following a successful election campaign in May, the UK Conservative Party was returned to power, for the first time since 1992, with a governing majority. Concerns have been raised, however, about the high level of privately-educated and ‘Oxbridge’ educated politicians that now comprise just not the party, but also the Cabinet of senior Ministers that head up Whitehall departments. Notwithstanding the concern that a party should broadly be reflective of the society it is governing, are there other network effects which can be found relating to the educational background of MPs?

Networks between politicians representing similar constituencies or campaigning on related topics, allowing flows of information, are an appropriate and useful function of a democratic system. It is healthy in a democratic system for ideas to be shared, discussed and debated. Networks, however, that are based on an individual’s past education would hint towards more non-democratic influences, where information is shared only between people ‘like us’ and elite groups are formed. This would confirm fears that the Conservative Party is running the country like ‘an old boy’s network’. The hypothesis of this research is that educational background is manifested in strong networks that represent political behaviour within the Conservative Party. With education a strong indicator of social class, the results of the research would therefore provide powerful insights into the nature of meritocracy within the party currently governing the UK.

For the purpose of this research ‘political behaviour’ will refer to the functions of a job undertaken by an MP in his role as an elected official and other characteristics assumed to be relevant.

Data

Details relating to where and when an MP attended secondary school and university would be collected from publicly available sources like ‘Who’s Who’ which already systemically collects such data. A two-mode dataset comprising all this information and associated attributes (see below) would provide an initial level of assessment into the research question. However, the data could also be turned into a one-mode dataset to calculate whether MPs attended the same school, university, or both.  The strength of the ties would be represented by how similarly educated they are. For example:

       0 = Do not share any educational similarity

       1 = Attended the same university

       2 = Attended the same school

       3 = Attended the same school and university

       4 = Attended either the same school or university at the same time

       5 = Attended both the same school and university at the same time

An assumption is made here that time spent at university represents a weaker bond than one formed at school. If the purpose of the research is to test a hypothesis based on the concept of meritocracy then because which school one attends it not based entirely on academic achievement (to a much greater degree than university attendance) then maintaining networks based on which school you attended is more concerning than attending the same university.

This formulation of the dataset, producing undirected relations, would produce the ties upon which the network would be primarily analysed. 

Due to the transparent nature of the British Parliament, there is a great deal of publicly available information about each MP and their political behaviour which could be used as attribute data. It is this attribute data which can be used to assess whether educational background has an effect on political behaviour.

Attribute data that could be collected includes:

Indication of status within the party

·         Membership of Parliamentary Select Committees

·         Membership of the Cabinet

·         Members of the Government (i.e. on the government payroll and thus not backbenchers)

·         Membership of the influential backbench ‘1922 Committee’

·         Number of rebellions against the government

Issues advancing in Parliament

·         Membership of All Party Parliamentary Groups

·         How voted on categories of key political issues

General characteristics

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Administrative region in which their constituency sits

·         General Election date when first entered Parliament

·         Amount spent campaigning in their constituency party at last election

·         Attendance at a Russell Group university

·         Attendance at a private school

·         Number of jobs held outside of Parliament (e.g. directorships)

All of this information is publicly available from various sources including: the UK Parliament website, TheyWorkForYou.com, PublicWhip.org.uk, the Electoral Commission, and the Register of Members’ Interests.

Important network measures:

The above attributes would represent a treasure trove of information to mine for insights about the influence of educational background to a MP’s political behaviour. The challenge, therefore, would be to focus on the most appropriate level of analysis. Much of the direction of the research would have to be led by an initial examination of the data e.g. at which strength of tie does it make sense to analyse the data.

However, recommended areas of examination to uncover likely network effects would likely include the following.        

• It is unlikely that at any level, the strength of association due to educational background will be strong enough to form a clique (after all even the famously elitist Cabinet of Prime Minister Balfour, with over half of its members old Etonians, still had a core of non-Etonians). But assessments of factions and sub-groups based on shared educational background, and overlaid onto different sets of the attribute data listed above, is likely to represent some of the most useful analysis.
• Similarly calculating levels of homophily for certain groups would provide insight into whether educational networks pervade into political behaviour in parliament. Perhaps the educational networks play a stronger role in older generations or perhaps the party has seemingly become less meritocratic since the time when a daughter of a greengrocer famously led the party?
• Scrutinising the impact of education at different levels of the party would also be an avenue for investigation e.g. is educational background irrelevant to becoming a member of the government but much more important to reach the level of Cabinet Minister?
• Claims that too many of the Prime Minister’s ‘inner circle’ from Eton could be tested and taken further by examining other levels of educational similarity (i.e. school and university attended), and used as a basis for an assessment of measures relating to the core-periphery elements of the network.
• Where groups of similarly educated MPs are found, centrality measures could provide insight into their relevant positions (official, and perhaps also, unofficial) within the party.

Uses and possible areas of expansion:

Political media in the UK would likely be interested in this innovative way of analysing how educational background relates to the dynamics of the Conservative Party. There would also be a wider public interest into this research given what its findings may reveal about the nature of democracy and meritocracy in the UK. Additionally, at a commercial level, lobbying firms would no doubt value the mapping of these assumed to be close-knit political networks to assist their work.

If the research were useful it could be expanded in various directions:

•  Political historians could compare data from different Parliaments over the course of the twentieth century to chart any discernible trends in the importance of educational background.
• Although accusations regarding elitism are not as common for the other UK political parties, different factors could be analysed for them e.g. membership of various trade unions for Labour MPs.
• Caution would have to be used in relation to a lot of comparability measures, but some insight might be gained by comparing the relative importance of educational background for different governing parties and parliaments around the world.