1.1 - 1.2 Flashcards
What are the advantages of Direct Democracy?
- only form of pure democracy
- creates better informed and more knowledgable citizens
- reduces, or removes, the public’s independence on self serving politicians
- ensures that rule is legitimate and that people are more likely to accept decisions they have made themselves
- ensures that government is legitimate
- reduces/removes the publics dependence on self serving professional politicians
What are the disadvantages of Direct democracy
- only achievable in relatively small communities
- all people have to dedicate time they may not have to politics
- not a sensible way to make complex decisions
- can create deep decisions in society
what are the disadvantages of representative democracy?
- gulf between the government and the people
- votes are so infrequent people can switch off from politics
- places too much faith in politicians who could distort public perception with their own views
- voter turnout is low and people feel increasingly disengaged from politicians
What are the advantages of representative democracy?
- only form of democracy that can operate in large modern societies
- puts design making in the hands of people with better education and experience
- helps people to accept compromise as so detached from government
- relives ordinary citizens of the day to day decision making
What are the 4 key democratic principles?
- legitimacy
- accountability
- consent
- representation
What is the best turnout for UK general election in the last 100 years?
1950 - 83%
What is the lowest turnout in a UK general election in the past 100 years?
2001 - 59.4%
What is the region with the best turnout in the UK general elections?
South West (2009)
What is the region with the lowest turn out in the UK general elections?
Northern Ireland (2019)
What are the key principles of democracy?
- Legitimacy
- Accountability
- Consent
- Representation
- Participation
What are the strengths of the UK governments legitimacy?
- FPTP system produces government with a clear mandate to govern
- Pressure groups help to give legitimacy to political decisions
- House of lords has limited legitimacy
What are the weaknesses of the UK Governments Legitimacy?
- FPTP lacks legitimacy because of the tendency to reward the winning party with more seats than they are entitled to
- Some argue that pressure groups use methods that negate legitimate political action
- The house of lords are appointed not elected
What are the strengths of the UK governments accountability?
- Parliament had effective methods of scrutiny that check the power of the UK government
- Election systems hold those who have held power to account
- Free media scrutinises those in power
What are the weaknesses of the UK governments Accountability?
- The government through its majority in the house of commons neutralised the effectiveness of any scrutiny - parliament is seen as weak
- Election system lacks necessary means of holding account due to their safe seats and multi member
- Print media is owned by a few powerful people who are criticised for distorting conversation on politics
What are the strengths of the UK governments consent?
- elections allows for voters to express their views and have them heard
- Referendums had added an extra direct layer of consent to constitutional reforms
- New democratic methods such as citizens assembly’s and E- Petitions
What are the weaknesses in the UKs governments Consent?
- election systems are criticised for results they produce and questions are raised about how much real consent is given
- referendums have complicated the system and can further non participation
- new democratic methods are merely advisory and the government can often
ignore them
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What are the strengths of the UK governments representation?
- elected institutions represent citizens across the UK in terms of politics, issues and descriptive representation (they mirror society)
- media represents the views of the public to politicians
- pressure groups can be i’ve a voice to the voiceless
- political parties through their party programmes reflect the road wishes of the public
What are the weaknesses of the UK governments representation?
- elected institutions often criticised as being ‘out of touch’ and not directly representative
- print media is accused of representation a narrow range of political views and therefore distorting the views of the their opponents
- not all pressure groups are heard
- political parties are accused of being too similar in their policies
What are the strengths of the UK governments participation?
- elections enable citizens to engage and turnouts have been increasing in recent years
- referendums and new democratic methods have given citizens further opportunities to get involved
- pressure groups and parties allow citizens to join through memberships
What are the weaknesses of the UK governments Participation?
- Turnouts in second order elections and low and lower than it used to be
- Referendums have had both high and low turnouts
- e petitions have low level participation and effort required
- pressure groups and parties have a lot of members who don’t participate
What are the strengths of free and fair elections in representative democracy?
- Very little fraud
- campaign rules are strictly applied to ensure parties have a fair chance to be heard
- elections are fair as they offer lots of choice to bothers and produce repetitive outcomes
- FPTP produces governments with a clear mandate to govern
- relatively easy to register to vote in the UK
What are the weaknesses of free and fair elections in representative democracy?
- some concerns over how secure postal voting is
- two main parties have a huge advantage in terms of funding and access to media and advertising
- PR and FPTP argue that the elections lack fairness
- New unfair voter ID rules
What are the strengths of universal suffrage in representative democracy?
- All 18+ year olds shave the right to vote
- Scotland and Wales have widened the franchise to 16*
What are the weaknesses to Universal sufferance in representative democracy?
- not all have to right invite as prisoners excluded (ins spite of the european court judgement against blanket ban
- 16 year olds in england and northern ireland cannot vote
- Voter ID and self registration is a means to disenfranchise some voters
What are the advantages of choice of competing political programmes in UK representative democracy?
- Range of parties offerings wide range of policy options to voters
- The main parties are not ideologically similar and so present alternate platforms for government
What are the weaknesses of choice of competing political programmes in the UKs representative democracy?
- elections systems (especially FPTP) migrate against smaller parties who simply struggle to gain electoral representation
- 2 main parties are seen as too similar
What are the weaknesses pressure groups in the UKs representative democracy?
- political pluralism exists in the fact that there are over 700 organisations seen as pressure groups
- new forms of democratic engagement ( referendums/ citizens assemblies and e petitions) have widened the conversation in the UK
What are the weaknesses of pressure groups and pluralism in the UKs representative democracy?
- political elitism is the reality either a small number is economically strategically important groups having close inside influence in government
- new forms of democratic engagement are still minority sports and government is not obliged to listen or take actuon
What are the strengths of the UK representative democracy’s ability to provide basic rights and freedoms?
- existance of the human rights act (1998) ensures that government, parliament and the courts uphold basic freedoms
- process of judicial review allows individuals and groups to challenge the decision of government in order to protect rights
- media act as a further check on encroachment by the state on rights
- media act as a further check on encroachment by the state on rights
What are the disadvantages regarding basic rights and freedoms in the UK representative democracy?
- Human rights act is not entrenched and can theoretically be easily repealed and replaced
- Plaiamneg passed laws that restrict individual rights
- courts are limited in the power meets in terms of their judgement and have now powers of enforcement
What are the advantages of representative democracy?
- more effective as ordinary citizens are relived of day to day burden of making key decisions
- onto practice form of democracy that can operate in large complex societies
- representatives offer choice of running things through competing programmes via political parties
- minority rights are better protected
- elections are a means of holding office holder to account
- government is by experts as political dare well educated and are better informed
What are the advantages of direct democracy?
- improves political education
- develops sense of community
- political equality is achieved ~ all votes are equal weight
- works in switzerland where they use regular referendums
- encourages popular participation in politics
- removed need for professional political as people can take responsibility for their own decisions
What are the disadvantages of representative democracy?
- may lead to reduced participation
- parties and pressure groups may be run by elites who try and push their own agenda
- minorities may still find themselves underrepresented as politicians are more likely to follow the views of the majority to secure election
- politicians are skinful in avoiding accountability ~ elections 5 years apart
- political a may be corrupt or distant
What are the disadvantages of direct democracy?
- impractical in large heavily populated societies
- emotional responses and short term decisions
- many will not want to go or not feel qualified to take part in the decision
- open to manipulation by the cleverest and most articulate speakers
- tyranny of the majority
How much has party membership fallen since the 1969
less than one quarter of the 1964 levels
What is the best example of a good turnout in a UK general election
1950 - 83.9%
What is the best example for lowest turnout in a UK general election?
2001 - 59.4%
What is the region in the UK that had best turnout in UK general elections?
South west (2019) - 72%
What is the region with the lowest turnout at UK general elections?
Northern Ireland (2019) - 61.8%
What is the best turnout for a devolved administration election?
1998 Northen Ireland Assembly (68.7%)
What is the lowest turnout for devolved administration election?
2003 Senedd Cymru 38.1% (regional)
Best local election turnout?
Orrell (England) 60.6% 2021
Lowest UK local election turnout?
Marfleet 14.6% 2021
Age group that has the highest turnout
2017 - 65+ (85.2%)
Age group with lowest turnout
2005 18-24 year olds (38.2%)
True/False - UK general turnouts have the highest average of all elections in the UK
True
True or False - Local elections have a high average turnout than devolved assembly elections
False
True or False - UK general election turnouts have increased for the last 5 elections
False
True or false - Voters in south and south east of the UK tend to vote on average in the higher numbers than the north?’
T
True or False - Labour holds seats in constituency with the lowest average turnout’s at general elections
True
True or False - For devolved assemblies Welsh voters are the most enthusiastic on average
F
True or False - Young and old tend to vote in similar numbers as a proportion of those in their age group eligible to vote
False
The strongest evidence for there being a participation crisis with respect to voting in the UK can be found…
in the lack of voting and accessibility for people with low income is causing a lesser variety of people to take part in elections
Give three examples that show that there is a problem with representation of women in members of political parties
Conservative - 29%
Lib Dem - 37%
Labour - 47%
51% of UK population is women
Has party memebershio across all parties fallen consistently year in year?
No - rise in green, lib dem and labour in 2015
How is there a representation crisis in membership in political parties in regards to class
Percentage of people from ABC1 social class grades in:
Lib Dem’s - 85%
Conservative - 83%
Labour - 77%
Is party membership a young persons game?
No - Average age of member:
- Conservative = 54 years old
- Labour = 54 years old
- Lib Dem’s = 51 years old
What are the rough membership party members numbers as of 2022
Labour - 432,000
Conservatives - 172,000
SNP - 104,000
Lib Dem - 74,000
SNP - 72,000
Green - 54,000
Plaid Cymru - 10,000
Why was the turnout at the 2024 general election significant?
- Turnout was 59.7% which was the lowest at a general election since 2001
- Turnout was 7.6% lower than the 2019 general election
What was the lowest constituency turnout in the 2024 election?
40% - Manchester Rushmore (lowest since South Staffordshire in 2005 at 37.2%)
In the lowest turnout contsituency, who is being voted for?
17/20 Labour
Where are the top 20 lowest turnout constituencies?
3/4 - Northwest, Yorkshire, West Midlands
What are the different types of participation?
- Individualistic
- Collective
- Contract Participation
What are examples of Individual Actions?
- donating money to a pressure group or political party
- Voting in an election
- Sign petition/ e-petition
What is a statistic in regaurds to Individual actions?
Signing a petition rose from 34% to 48% in 2019
What are examples of collective action?
- Attended political meeting or rally
- Took part in public demonstration
- Formed a party or pressure group
- Took part in a strike
Give a statistic on the UK’s participation in regaurds to collective action
Give an example of Contact Action
- contacted a politician
- contacted local authority
- contacted the media
Give a statistic of the UKs participation in Contact Action
Define Slacktivism
Refers to a half-harted from of activism usually by posting links, comments, images in support of a cuase without further action
Define Clicktivism
Refers to the sure of social media and other online methods to promote a cause simply by clicking on an endorsemnent or signature button
What are the key drivers of political disengagement?
- Scandals such as MPs ecpenses crisis in 2009
- Failure of politicians to deal with crises like Brexit/COVID/Cost of Living
- The Election system FPTP (Wasted votes/Safe seats/Tactical Voting)
What is an example of Britons having no confidence in politicans?
- 45% would ‘almost never’ trust british governments of any arty to place the needs before their own in 2024
- 79% beleive the present system of governeing could be improved ‘quite alot’ or ‘a great deal’ in 2024
- 58% would ‘almost never’ trust politicans to tell the truth in 2024
What is the evidance that supports that conidence has fallen amoungst Leave Voters?
- 48% of those who voted leave say they would ‘almost never’ trust governments in 2024 even higher than the 40% in 2019
- 60% of leave voters ‘almost never’ trust governmennts in 2024 matching the 61% in 2019
What is the evidance trust and confidence have been undermined by some of the policy challenges facing government
72% of thse who are struggling finantially ‘almost never’ trust politicians, compared with 49% of those living comfortably
What are the key features of democracy?
- consent
- legitimacy
- representation
- accountability
Define Manifesto
a document that outlines (in more or less detail) the policies or programme a party intends to intricuced if elected
Define mandate
An instruction or command that gives authority to a person or body to act in a particular way; a mandate thereofre onfers legitimacy on a political actor
What are the strengths of the doctrine of the mandate?
- Grants clear authority to an incoming government and so strengthens its legitimacy
- it allows parliament and the voters to judge the performance of the government
- demonstrates clearly when a governemnt may be overstepping its elective authority
What are the weakness of the docterine of the mandate?
- parties in the UK today are always elected with less than 50% of the popular vote, so their mandate can be called into question
- those who voted for the governeing party do not necessarily support all its manifesto commitments
- it is not clear whether the government has a mandate to carry out policies not contained in its last manifesto
How are people in government held accountable?
- Questions to ministers in the prime ministers question time
- Debates in the chamber and in westminster hall
- Committes
- The media
- Pressure Groups
What are the key forms of represntation in UK democracy?
- Constituencies
- Political parties
- Government representation
- Pressure groups
Who is excluded from having a vote in parliamentary elections in the UK?
- people under the age of 18
- EU citizens (apart from irish republic) - EU citixens can vote in local elections.
- members of the house of lords
- the monarch
- prisoners
- those conviced of a corrupt or illegal electoral practice (banned for 5 years)
- people who are compulsorily detained in a phsyciatric hospital
What was the most significant development fron the 1832 Great Reform Act?
- extended the franchise to 800,000 people (6%)
- create seats that represented new cities
- disbanded rotten boroughs
WHat developments are acheived through both the 2nd great reform act (1867) and the Third Great Reform act 1887?
2nd:
- 2% more men to polls
- reforming constituency boundaries
3rd:
- extended vote to all working men
- size of electorate increated > 5.5 million
What year did women gain equal rights to vote?
1928
When was the voting age reduced from 18-21?
1969
What are reasons for the vote being reduced to 16
- in Scotland, in 2014, 75% of 16-18 year olds voted (the highest number since 1992)
- 16 year olds already have many responsibilities
- politics would have to listen to young people more
- adults are not nessesarily more aware/educated
What are reasons against the voting age being reduced to 16 years old.
- the rights of 16-18 year olds still remain limited
- lack of education in politics
- no evidance that reducing the voting age would lead to increased voting turnout
- low turnout amoungst 18-24 year olds
What are the reasons for allowing prisoners to vote?
- vast majority are in for a short time for a non violent crime
- Most prisoners will return to society
What are the reasons against allowing prisoners to vote?
- convicted prisoners are not a part of society
- when breaking the law, prisoners rights should be stripped from them
What are the reasons for making the vote compulsory?
- voters are not obligated to vote for one of the candidates if they consisentiuallu cannot do so – it would still be legal to spoil the vote
- politicians would have to run better campaigns and governments would have to frame their campaigns with the whole electorate in mind
What are the reasons against compulsory voting?
- condidates could vote randomly to take less time/effort
- dousnt adress the deeper reaons why people decide to not vote
Why was it felt nessesary to introduce voter ID to uk elections?
‘Fear or voter fraud’
- 2017 there were 28 cases of voter fraud (0.0004% of voters)
What evidence is there to support the reason for introducing voter ID?
- politicians cant blame loss on fraud
- maintain validity, legitimacy and integrity
- use ID for alot of other things
What are the arguments supporting voter ID?
- preventing voter fraud and creating more trust and integrety in the system
What are the arguments against voter ID?
- can become inaccessable
- 0.08% couldnt vote because no ID (16,000)
- 1 in 1200 turned away
- 76% ethnic minorities and 71% 18-24 year olds werent aware of the new legistration
What is deliberative democracy?
A form of democracy in which deliberation is central to desision making
What is a citizens assembely?
When a randomly selected group of citizens meet on regular occasions to lern, discuss and decide on proposals based on their disscusions to advise and deliberate with the government
Why are citizens assemblys not a form of deliberative democracy?
Because they have no policy making power and their decisions are just advisory
What did the Citizens’s Assembly on brexit say about citizens assemblies?
What are the advantages of citizens assembelies?
- allows people to be heard and politicans to listen and to do their jobs better
- has helped to solve some difficult political issues such as legalisng abortion in ireland
- desicions are still in the hands of elected politicans
- feedback from those who have done it has been posative so far
- public can give insight to policy from a unique perspective
What are the disadvantages of citizens assemeblies?
- citizens lack the knowledge of professional politicians and may over-rely on the veiws of the experts
- not everyone can give the time and expense
- if no action taken it could increase the sense of powerlessness in politics
- small sample may not be representative
- relativley expensive
Define e-democarcy
The use of computer-based technoligies to enhance citizens’ engagement in democratic processes
What are some examples of e-democracy?
- online voting
- online petitions
- e cambaigning
- webistes, blogs, vlogs
- social media
Give an example of the public using e-democracy
- e-petition in 2011 calling for the release of the documents relating to the Hillsbrough football disaster of 1989
- 139,000 signatures
- inquest was launched by the government and the deaths were ruled unlawful
How have ‘38-degrees’ been sucessfull in e-democracy?
- persuading the UK’s largest tea bag manafactuer to remove plastics from their tea bags
- persuaded durham county council to block authorisation of a new open-cast coal mine
- secured a U-turn on government plants to cut funding for womens refuges
How have ‘38 degrees’ received critisism?
Their pesistant emailing and campaigning has caused members of the house of commons and lords to become annoyed and is resulting in their work being ‘distrupted’
What are reasons for e-democracy?
- easier participation
- acess to information
- ease of organisations
- power to the people
What are the reasons against e-democracy?
- electoral mispractice
- clicktivism
- digital divide
- anti-democratic forces
