component 1: democracy and participation

Question 1

types of democracy

Answer 1

• direct democracy: traced back to Ancient Greece, known as the original purest democracy, based on direct,immediate continuous involvement of people in decision making. No distinction between the gov and people as people are the government. Stops a divide between the people and the government.
• representative democracy: Most dominant form of democracy, where people choose others to make decisions for them. It is indirect: public does not exercise power themselves, mediated: people are linked to gov through representative institutions and limited: popular participation in gov is limited e.g. elections are every 5 years.

Question 2

ehancing democracy in the UK

Answer 2

1 - referndums: voters are asked to decide n a single matter of government policy, there are high levels of engagement in them and support for them (55% of public agree important decisions should be resolved by referendums.
2 - voter initiatives: used to propose a new law by gathering a certain number of public signatures and putting it to public vote. If the proposal is passed it becomes a law. It was used in US for the legalisation of marijuana.
3 - e-petitions: they directly raise issues to be discussed in parliament, must acquire 100,000 signatures for a debate.

Question 3

policies for suffrage and voting

Answer 3

1 - 1832 great reform act: created 67 new constituencies , electorate increased 50%.
2 - 1867 second reform act: doubled electorate to 2 million men (16% of pop)
3 - representation of the people act 1918: widened suffrage to all men and women over 30, electorate tripled in size.
4 - 1928 equal franchise act:lowered women voting age from 31 to 21, established universal adult suffrage in UK.
5 - 1969 representations of the people act: lowere voting age from 21 to 18.
6 - 2014 Scotland: Lowered voting age in 2016 to 16 instead of 18 and so did the welsh senedd.