Matt Flinders, University of Sheffield
This paper matters because it provides a distinctive account of the origins of the contemporary condition of political disengagement. It achieves this by cultivating a relatively under-nourished field of study – the politics of public expectations – and locating this analysis within the parameters of existing debates concerning public apathy with politics. This opens up a new field of analytical terrain concerning the existence of an ‘expectations gap’, a ‘performance gap’ and ‘safety-net theory’. These concepts, in turn, help us develop and sharpen the analytical traction and leverage of the notion of ‘public expectations’. This involves distinguishing between the ‘the public’s expectations of the behaviour and performance of politics’ and ‘political expectations of the behaviour and performance of the public’. Identifying this distinction, noting the iterative and dialectical relationship between these dimensions, identifying different patterns of emphasis, and locating them within the lens of economic models of democracy arguably delivers new insights about longstanding socio-political concerns .The arguments of this paper matter because they pose new questions about revitalising politics, the capacity of the state, the rationalities of political competition, and the available tools of political analysis.
Revitalising Politics 
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