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
-
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