Democracy and Participation Flashcards
What is a represented democracy
- Voters elect politicians to make decisions on their behalf as it is unreasonable for the people to be expected to have the knowledge to make these decisions for themselves.
- Voters decide who is the representative for their constituency via general elections
- Politicians must be able to listen to their people and represent them in the commons. Also expected to represent the values of their party and have a wider knowledge of the topic
- E.g., General elections, local MPs, local elections, councillors, police and crime commissioner elections (PCC), mayoral elections, devolved elections
Advantages of a representative democracy
1) Government is carried out by professionals who are well informed and can make better decisions.
2) Before a bill can be passed, it is drawn up by ministers and civil servants then debated in parliament (commons and lords)
3) Elected politicians balance opposing interests when reaching decisions which favours minorities who are often discriminated against in direct democracy (as it is likely a majoritarian democracy)
4) Public can elect a new government every 5 or so years - or if there is a vote of no confidence
5) Representatives are accountable to the people; they can be voted out of office by constituents.
6) Allows rapid responses in times of crisis e.g., the deployment of troops
Disadvantages of representative democracy
1) MPs are often disengaged from the public so don’t properly represent them. MPs can have outside agendas
2) Westminster Parliament is elected through FPTP so Tories and Labour dominate in the Commons whilst smaller parties struggle to gain appropriate representation
3) Social make up is primarily white, middle class men so interests of other voters isn’t fairly represented. Minorities underrepresented.
4) The House of Lords is unelected so unaccountable to the public
5) General Elections are every 5 years
6) Politicians disagree and this can cause problems when important bills struggle to get passed
What is a direct democracy?
- Where decisions are directly made by the public without their opinions being channelled through representatives. No distinction between government and citizen.
- Referendums are a form of direct democracy
- 2015 Recall of MPs act allows a by-election to be triggered if an MP is imprisoned or suspended from Commons for more than 21 days if 10% of voters in a constituency sign
Advantages of direct democracy
1) Allow the people to have more of a say and govern the country how they see fit
2) Keeps engagement high
3) Avoids deadlock in political system - it is a binary ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question with one winner.
4) As the people make the decision it has greater legitimacy
Disadvantages of direct democracy
1) Allows the public to make decisions on vital issues - some issues are too complex
2) Can lead to ‘tyranny of the majority’ where the winning majority simply ignores the views of the losing side
3) Gives too much influence to activists - can be easily swayed by charismatic individuals or unrealistic promises (350 million a week to spend on NHS)
4) Impractical to make public convene for every decision.
Forms of political participation?
Voting in General Elections and Referendums
Membership of Political Parties
Pressure Group Membership
E - Petitions
Standing for Office
Forms of Political Participation - Voting in General Elections
- Between 1950 - early 1990’s, turn out to general elections was always above 50%
- However, 2001 only 59% of the population voted (might be because of great majority Blair had)
- Since 1945, there has been a decline in voting participation - in 1969, there’s a spike as voting age was lowered from 21 - 18
- 2019 General Election had a 67.3% turnout (1.5%. drop from 2017). Election was expected to have lower turnout as it was the first December election since 1923, poor weather, so older voters stay home.
- Still higher turnout than 2001, 2005, 2010, and 2015
- Turnout was lowest in ‘red wall’ seats - traditional Labour voters who didn’t vote
- For ingrained cultural reasons, it was easier to not vote than transfer their loyalties to the historic enemy
Forms of Political Participation - Voting in Referendums
- Turnout for EU Referendum (2016) was 72.2% compared to the 2015 general election which was 66.2% turnout.
- However, not all elections have turnouts like this;
- E.g., Welsh Devolution Referendum (1997), only 50% turnout and only 50% voted in favour (25% of electorate voted for it)
- Depending on how controversial the question is, impacts turnout. E.g., Scottish Independence Referendum (2014) had an 84% turnout and BREXIT which was very emotive, had a high turnout - 72.2%
Forms of Political Participation - Political Party Membership
- Membership of Parties has declined steeply since WWII, reaching a low in 2013
- By 2019, Labour’s membership rose to 485,000 members compared to the Conservative’s 180,000 members.
- With Labour, you could instantly join for cheaper and have a say in leadership votes
- Since 2013, after membership plummeted, it has risen notably, but is still low
- Not necessarily a bad thing
- With party dealignment, it makes less sense to join a political party as you vote differently in individual elections.
Forms of Political Participation - Pressure Group Membership
- Risen massively since 1971 so people argue there is no participation crisis - just people participating in different ways
- However, pressure groups mainly focus on one aspect of society - not necessarily healthy
- Some people join the groups, such as the National Trust, for the benefits and is not politically motivated.
Forms of Political Participation - E-Petitions and Digital Democracy
- Via Parliament websites and others you can sign petitions on issues that you are passionate about. If it gets 10,000 signatures it will get a response from parliament. 100,000 signatures and it will be discussed in parliament.
Forms of Political Participation - Standing for Office
- You can represent a party or stand as an independent candidate
- There are 20,000 Local Councillors in England
- Local Councillors represent their local community
- You can stand to be an MP
- However, you cannot stand as an MP if you are a member of the armed forces or a civil servant
How to increase political participation?
- More education and at a younger age
- Decrease voting age
- Decrease student party membership price
- E-voting
- Lower voting age to 16
- Reward Engagement
- Compulsory voting
- Better response to petitions
- Free online apps/newspapers
- Awareness of Parties
- Electoral Reform?
- Restore trust in politicians
- Further Devolution
To what extent is UK Politics in need of reform?
- There’s a lot of political disengagement and steps are needed to re-engage the public
- Trust in politicians has massively declined and turnout has decreased
- 2017 General Election, only 68.7% turnout, compared to 77.2% in 1992 General Election. Thus a question of legitimacy and a participation crisis.
