The United Kingdom political landscape has historically been dominated by the two main political parties: Labour and the Conservatives. However, by the 2010 General Election, their vote share had dropped to 65%. The 2010 election also saw a new development enter the UK political landscape—televised leaders’ debates, which featured the leaders of the three largest political parties. Discussions before the 2015 General Election resulted in a decision to repeat the debate experiment, but this time, partly due to changes in projected vote shares, seven leaders were invited to the main debate. Using content analysis of the debate, this research questions the presentation of the debate as a deliberative event. Participatory parity was not achieved in the debate—far from it. Instead, the debate served to reinforce extant power differentials between the leaders of parties of differing political standings.

中文翻译：

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有争议的领域：英国领导人辩论中的主要政党霸权，次要政党边缘化

历史上，联合王国的政治格局主要由两个主要政党主导：工党和保守党。但是，到2010年大选时，他们的投票率已降至65％。2010年大选还见证了英国政局的新发展-领导人辩论激化，其中三个最大政党的领导人参加了辩论。2015年大选之前的讨论导致决定重复进行辩论实验，但这一次，部分是由于预计投票比例的变化，邀请了7位领导人参加主要辩论。通过对辩论的内容分析，本研究质疑辩论的表达是一种审议事件。辩论中没有实现参与式均等，远非如此。反而，