Democracy and participation Flashcards
what are the different forms of democracy ?
representative democracy
direct democracy
evauate the effectiveness direct democracy in the UK ?
( two point for, ev + conter ev, two points agaist, ev + conter ev)
over all not effective
referendums
* legitimise and trigger major consitutional changes though popular soveignty + end confit over issues
1. e.g. The devolution refurendoms of 1997, triggering devolution in scotland (74%/26% on 60.4% turn out) (the Scotland act(1998)), N island (71%/29% on 81% turn out) ( The Good Friday agreement (1998))
* scotish inderpendence
* if there is lowturn out it decreses the legitamacy of the action + conflict can contunue
1. e.g brexit
1. e.g. (The wales act 1998), (welsh devolution), was enitiated on a refurendom result of 50.3% to 49.7% on a 50.2% turn out
E-petitions
* easy way for publict to voice their opioon
*once a petition reaches above 100,000 signatures it has to be debated in parliament
1. - for example in the “End child food poverty” petition, lead by England Football player: Marcus Rashford, reached over 1,000,000 signatures and resulted in more support for free school meals
* - just because a petition is popular or debated, it does not mean that it has to be implemented
1. Two over brexit, some of the largest in history
The Recall of MP’s act 2015
* if MP is imprissioned, suspended from parliament or guilty of making false expenses claims then a petision by 10% of the consituants can trigger a by-election
1. for example, Chris Davsies in Brecon and Radnorshire, following a conviction for fraudulant expensise claims where he lost the by-election
* the criteria is quite strigent (presise)
1. For example, despite multiple sexual assult claims aginst ex conseravtive MP chris pincher for the constituency of (Tamworth), he is still able to stay on untill the next genral elction in 2024 as 10% was just short of being reached
2. only 3 ever been succesful
How effective is representative democracy in the UK ?
( 1 point for with 2 ev + conter, one points agaist, 2 ev + 2 conter ev)
is effective
Competent officials
* people are voted in by their consituenst on their life tike skills and achivements so its possible to offten have policy specialsits and highly educated people, with acress to ciavl servant reasearchers, running the country
1. Dr Sarah wolston, GP for 20 yr before heading the Health and social care selct comitee from 2017-2019
2. 86% of MP’s ahve degrees
* however heads of governement departemnt are offen carea pollitisions with no specialties intheir given dartment
* carea politicians
lack of representation
* actual representation becuse of winners bonus in FPTP
1. 2015 con gov 37% of the vote vs 50% of seats
2. vs Ukip 12.6% of vote and 1.8% of seats
*Social representation = “The Representation model” argues that people must share social idenities of the portion o fthe elctorat etahst tehy represent inorder to to propperly represent them witc parliament does not
1. In 2017 8% of MP’s were etnic minority vs 18% in uk as a whole,
2. 32% and female vs 50% in Uk
* parliament is the most diverse it has ever been 7% of parliament are LGBT > the average for over 16s in the UK of 3.2%
* the trustee model - Some MP’s voted to trigger or non to trigger article 50 in spite of the way their constituents votes in Brexit
Tyranny of the majority from FPTP
1. Blair Iraq, can act seemingly against public onion
How socially representaive is UK democracy (2017)
( 3 examples for it being represenative, two aginst)
isn’t represenative
- 32% female vs 50% of the uk
- 8% ethnic minority vs 18 of the UK
- 29% privatly educated vs 7% of the uk
- but 7% LGBT vs 3.2% of the UK
- Some people belive that there can be a Trustee model
- most rep its evet been
what is a particiapation crisis? and why is it an issue ?
(why is it an issue ?)
- where the public becomes disengaged from politics
- It becomes a problem when voting falls so low that the legitamacy of te election and mandate of gov / dession making can be questioned
Is there a crisis of participation in the UK ?
2 para traditionl 2 ev +1 counter ev, 2 para untrad 2 ev + 1 counter ev
traditional methods of participation
* turnout
1. 1974 turn out was 79% vs in 2001% where it reached a record low of 59%
2. police commissioner elections never reached above 25%, AV referendum turn out 42% and 48% in NE devolution referendum
however:
1. every year sice excluding 2019 having seen an increase. (2017 was 69% turn out and 2019 was a snap election called in winter and still the turnout only fell 1%)
2. in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 there was a turn out of 85% and Brexit 72% (turn out is high if it is issue people are engaged in
- party membourship
1. in 1950’s there were 2.8 million coservative party membours and about 1 mill labour vs in 2015 where there are 119,000 and 198,000 in labour
however :
1. party memboursip in labour has increased significantly from 198,000 to 552,00 when Corbin became party leader in 2015. - although dropped - conservtive also incresed to 172,000 around its recent leaderhsip elctions + now
- strikes and tade unions
1. trade union membourship has fallen to from 13.2 million in 1979 to arounf 6 million today
2. the trade union act 2016 make stiking alot harder, requiring turnout thresholds to vote to hold a strike
however:
1. we have seen the national railstrikes, nurses and royal mail strikes in 2022 as well suggetsing this has not holted people, - ineffective
non traditional
- presure group membourshipand protests
1. 4.5 million Uk citozens are membours of enviromental presure groups in the UK
2. 40-50% are a meber of a PG
2. the recent cergence in left wing enviroemntal presure groups suggest thing is not the case, for example extinction rebellion, friends of the earth and green peace- green peace mobalised their 400k uk follers to help ban micro beeeds in 2018
3. 4. numbres of people protesting have aslo remained high, even throught Covid millions of people still took to the streets in BLM protests after the unjust murder of george Floyd by a US police officer, as well as in youth strikes for climate.
however:
1. are these just check book mebours whom pay a subsriptions for the benifits of being a membour and are not particulallarly pollitically active. like the national trust with its 3.4 membours
however: - petrsions (online petitions)
1. in 2017 22% of the population say they signed an online Epetition up from 15% in 2016
2. in 2021 marcus rashford premoted T”he stop child food poverty” petition gaining over 1,000,000 signatures
However:
3. is this too easy? are people informed on what they are advocating for? is it meaningful participation
4. 6.1 million signed the stop brxit petison and 4.1 for call a new ref, but neither were effetive
How convincing are proposals for reforme of UK democracy
The big 4
(2 against, (1f 2a, 2f 2a), 2 for (2f 2a, 1f 2a)
Further devolution (not convincing)
1. the west loathian problem
2. EVEL
electoral reform
*issues with FPTP in general elections and the winners bonus
1. in 2015 conservatives and labour combined won 67% of the vote but 86% of the seats meanwhile Ukip won 13% (12.6%) of the vote but only 2% of the seats 1.8%
* however lack of public apetite
1. There was a refurendom held for elctoral reform in 2011 and the result show that 68% people didnt want elctoral reform
3. however this was just For a switch to AV witch would favour the conservative paety even more
4. plus tunout was only 42%
Widening tthe franchise/sufferage
* young people should eb allowed to vote on things that will soon effect their furture and present as many have adukt responcabillities
1. e.g have jobs and live inderpendently, can pay tax, national insurance, and joint the milliatary
* However low turn out and
1. isle of man 46% turn out and 18-24 in 2019 it was only 47%
1. Howevr 16-17 yearolds already have the vote in scotland and wales parliamentry electiosn increase participation as when 16-17 were allowed to vote in scotish inderpendence refurendum the turnout was 75% amoungst this group
elected lords
* yes- greter decocratisation + get rid on in buit consertive majority
1. 800 unelecyed lords with 92 herritage pears and 26 bishops
2. 239 con mps vs 188 Labour and 186 cross 2018
* no- would undermine the house of commons and result in grid lock + most life pears have already with rep;aces + policy specialists
1. consitutional reform act 2005 - 92 herritage pears
2. life pear phillope hamond has been transport, foreign, defense secratry and chanceller. But there are incresing peopel froma diverity of backgrouds for exampel Lord Adebowale who is a community leader who has dedicated his career to addressing social inequalities and promoting mental health and well-being
give examples of two popular E-Petisions surrounding Brexit
- e-petition for a second refurendom 4.1 mill signitures
- e-petision to stop brexit 6.1 million signiture
how many herreditary peirs are there in the house of lords? how are Lords appointed ? and how many life peirs did blair appint?
91, by The House of Lords commision they are desided but they are officially appointed by the PM, 203
What act allowed women sufferage over the age of 30 and later everyonr over the 21
The Representation of the People Act 1918 and 1928
Give two pieces of evidence that the franchise should not be expanded to 16-17 yearolds
- in the Isle of man turn out is 46% amung thi sage group
- turnout between 18-24 year olds is the lowest across the country
Evaluate the factors that effect if a presure group is sucessful or not
Having insider status
1. BAM during Covid
1. the NFU including plant nursary workers in The argricultural tax exemtion
2. The Howard Legue (prsion justice) lobbying to lift the ban on families not being able to send people in prion books
3. the stone wall in repealign section 28 under blair and The marrage act 2013
expertise
1. the NFU convincing the government to go ahead with the somerset and Glostershire badger culls despite fire oposition with public opion polls and the Badgers trust
2. The BMA and th 7 day NHS
wealth
* fund campeins, offices and lobbiest
1. for exaple The ASH PG and Friend of the earth have been ale to set up large offices in Edinburgh and Cardiff to lobby th enew devolved assemblies and widen their influnce
2. Forrest, a Smokers rigths PG that is funded to lobby on behalf of large corperate cigaret companies have repeatedly faield to repeal and prevent government resictions on cigarets. For exple 2010 they lobbies the government to introduce plain packaging but by 2011 this campei had failed
lareg meambourship/public support
1. the microbeads campeign lead by Greenpeace, resulted in government ban of microbeeds in all cosmetics by 2018
2. snowdrop campeign after dunblane massacre ban of hand guns
1. The stop the war colallision failed in preventing iraq, despite having protests of over 350,000 people
* not all mebours are always pollitically active
1. for example National turst with 3.4 “checkbook members”
celerity inducements
1. Joanna Lumney in the success of the Gaukha Justoc eCampein (helping Gaukhas reisve the sam eright sas British and commonwealth citozens)
2. paul macartney banning animal testing with Peta but no avail
Give 5 examples of Consitutinal rigths protectiosn in the UK
- the magnacarta
- The bill of rigths 1689
- the HRA 1998
- the freedom of infomation act 2000
- the Equallity act 2010
How effectively are rights and civil liberties protteted in the UK
judicial review
1. in 2010, the supreme Court declared that homosexuality could provide grounds for claiming asylum in the UK if the claims came from countries where being homosexual resulted in persecution.
2. the number of reviews rose from around 4000 in 2000 to over 15,000 by 2013
* judicial review places too much power in the hands of unelected judges
* however parliament still can ignore them as it retains its soveignty
1. ignorored the european court of human rights in hirst vs the united kingdeom where they declaied all prisoners shoudl have the right to vote
protected by parliament/legislation
* Many right are codified into UK law, such as the HRA 1998, The freedom of information act 2000 and the equallity act 2010
1. Abu Qatada was a radical muslim and susspected terrorist British jail, he was wanted for trial in Jordan
but his legal team fought deportation for 8 years on the presmis that it breached the HRA clause on freedom from torture witch would likly occure if he faced trial in Jordan - Othman v UK ECHR
* parliamentary sovereignty actually means that parliament can repeal rights at any time, thus threatening rights rather than upholding them
1. Tory gov tried to repeal the human rights act in july 2022 will a less stricked bill of rights, and they may still do so
preotected by presue groups and the media
1. The presure group Liberty campeigned fircely to repeal idenity cards as they viewed them as an enfringemnt on cival liberties and thsi was sucessful. in 2010 the cameron governemnt scrapped them
* governemnt can quite easilly ignore PG
1. For example the British Youth counsil has been campeigning for years for votes for 16-17 years olds, largly on the basis of the HRA clawse of “the rigth to partake in free elction”, but this has been to no evale
2. liberty has been campaignign to repeal the invesigtory powers act for years since 2016 when it was enacted
In the Noth east referendum on devolution what were the results and turn out
78% didnt want it and there was a 48% turn out
what were the results and turn out of the referendum on electoral reform to AV
68% din’t want it and there was a 42% turn out
What acts have limmited the power of the house of lords
The Parliament Act, 1911 and 1949
1. can only delay a bill two years
2. can only delay a bill a year
( house of lords reform bill 2012) (kinda)
What was the scotish inderpendece refurendom result
55% no to inderpendence and 45% yes to inderpendence, 85% turn out
What adult responceabillities do 16-17 year olds have but not voting
- they pay adult prices
- they can marry
- join the millitary
- they can pay tax
what causes democratic overload ? + give an example of this
- when there are too many methods of dirrect particpation
- In 2016, in all the devolved assemblies, participation did not reach above 60% and in Wales it was as low as 45%
