Thomas Friedman writes in the NYT about the decline of democratic freedoms around the world in recent years. Link: The Democratic Recession

It would be interesting to see some research into the motivations of those who voted for Boris Johnson in the mayoral election on Thursday. This is not to make a political point, although enough of them have been made over the past few weeks. Rather, Boris’ high media profile and good public image makes for some interesting questions about why people vote as they do.

You can see a few possible motivations for Boris voters. They might have been:

1. Conservative party voters who would have voted for anyone on their side
2. People who didn’t like or trust Ken Livingstone
3. People who liked Boris’ ideas
4. People who liked Boris himself, from what they had seen on TV or in the papers

The interesting question, from a democratic point of view, is what proportion of voters fell into group four, and of them, what proportion knew or cared what Boris’s policies actually were.

This is of particular relevance in this election because Boris supporters said on more than one occasion that, while Boris himself wasn’t temperamentally up to running the city, he’d hire a lot of smart people who were.

If, as I suspect, a fair portion of Conservative voters liked Boris and bought this line, it does make one wonder what the point of manifestoes and policy platforms is. Also, it’s a worry, or should be, for the Conservative party in London. Boris as the outsider was able to say ‘you like me, so trust my judgment’. After four years of governing, when he will (even without gaffes) inevitably annoyed and disappointed a lot of people, that line won’t work any more - he will need some set of policy proposals underneath.

It’s now clear that you can win elections (in favourable conditions) on the platform of being a charming eccentric, but you can’t govern that way.

Metafilter picks up on a story at USA Today, revealing the price sheets (literally, PDF price sheets) for particular levels of perks at the Republic and Democratic party conventions. Top-end hospitality starts from $100,000.

So, UK local elections are here, as well as the pantomime contest for Mayor of London. Much has been said elsewhere on the elections and what it means for the different parties. Here’s Michael White, for instance.

We are strictly non-partisan here, so we’ll leave the political battles to one side to note in passing the sad absence of election night drama, with many results, including the London ones and all of Wales, not being counted till tomorrow morning. While this is better for the poor officers who have to do the counting, and doubtless prevents careless errors, it does mean that results come out when people are at work and their minds are on other things.