Democracy And Participation Flashcards

Question

How has uks democracy been reformed?

Answer 1

The act was passed by a majority of 340 to 132 maps in the Commons in March 1999. The Weatherill amendment proposed that 92 hereditary peers would remain in the HOl.

Answer 2

STV • Northern Ireland’s Assembly • Local government in Scotland and N. Ireland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 2022 Scottish local elections turnout 45% Nicola Sturgeon snp leader won 453 seats. NI ensures a power share between nationalist and unionist parties 2022 assembly election Sinn Fein (nationalist) won the most seats 27 and DUP (unionist) won 25 seats.with a turnout of 63% Advantages: • Delivers proportional outcomes and ensured that votes are largely of equal value. • The most popular candidates overall are elected. • Government is more likely to consist of a party or group of parties who won over 50% of the vote • Voters choose between wide range of candidates, parties including different candidates from the same party meaning there is a greater choice • Helps small parties/independents get elected

Answer 3

• Scottish Parliament • Welsh Assembly • London Assembly 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 scot parliament election 2021 Turnout 63% SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon won with 64 seats however resigned in 2023 and her successor is Yousaf Humza who won with 48% at the leadership election. Welsh - 2021 Senedd election Turnout 47% Labour party won 30 seats 2021 London assembly Turnout 43% Labour won with 11 seats Conservatives won 8 Advantages: • Combines the best of FPTP and proportional representation – constituency representation with fairness of outcomes • Results are broadly proportional • Fewer wasted votes • Voters have greater choice – more evidence of split-ticket voting where voters use their constituency vote for a preferred candidate but their list vote for a different party • Helps smaller parties who could not win constituency seats • Some parties use the system to improve representation of women – placing female candidates at the top of their lists • Voters are easy to count and is not difficult for voters to understand how the outcome is reached.

Answer 4

1) mp convicted of an offence and has received a custodial sentence or detained. Example - fiona onasanya was removed from office in 2019 after a successful RP under recall of the MPs act 2015 for criminal conviction of lying to the police about who was driving when being prosecuted for speeding. 2) can not sit in the hoc for 10 sitting days 3) convicted of providing misleading/false info for allowance claims under Parliamentary Standards Committee Act 2009. For example Christopher Davis pleaded guilty to fraud as he mislead parliament over an expenses invoice of £700 photographs to decorate his office by making fake invoices. Opened for 6 weeks and 10% of the constituency have to sign the petition to trigger a by-election. Impact - the recall of mps act 2015 is important as it holds MPs to account for their wrongs doings it enhances democracy as the public get tou the MP should stay inside the decide if the mp should stay and serve the house of Commons and represent them it also helps to build trust which boosts participation and turnout and sets the standards and expectations for MPs

Answer 5

100,000signatures on the parliament website to be debated by MPs E democracy makes political participation more accessible to people Eg revoke Article 50 petition got over 6 million is signatures Do not prorogue parliament got over 1 million signatures the public wanted to stop gov from suspending parliament early ahead of the credit deadline. Impact - -avoid the need for a referendum -more accessible -informs MPs about issues the public thinks are important and therefore there able debate issues boosting participation and transparency.

Answer 6

Not voting Not joining a political parties Not standing for office Not engaging with politics high levels of dissatisfaction with current political system

Answer 7

Participation has not declined but rather changed as people may be increasingly disillusioned with party politics and this has driven them to look for participation in other ways eg PG A few have even criticised the idea of apathy suggesting apathy occurs when voters are won't err rent with the system experiencing hapathy However apathy should not be dismissed as elections are vital for democracy and a low turnout signals apathy.

Answer 8

75% Most recent GE turnout was 67% not up to historic levels 2001 GE 59% Almost all Uk governments were not the choice of most people since the combined vote for other parties almost always is larger than the party that wins office. Low voter turnout means that although the UK electoral system routinely fails the basic democratic principle of delivering the choice of the people- yet governments still govern. lower turnouts may be due to voter apathy, political cynicism and disengagement from politics. If so this could be a worrying sign that the system of representative democracy is failing to fulfill its most basic function of winning the consent of the people.

Answer 9

Scotland- 2021 Scottish Parliament election turnout = 63.5% Wales - 2021 Senedd election = 46.6% NI - 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election = 63.61% This may be because voters see these less powerful bodies as unlikely to make a major difference to their lives. referendums have also generally had a low turnout.

Answer 10

low turnouts are the result of 'Hapathy' There is little difference between the parties and they agree on the basic social and economic structure of our society.Most people may not really mind who wins. An alternative version of this is known as 'hapathy' meaning that people are generally content and see no need to push for political change. This may possibly help to account for the unusually low levels of voter turnout in 2001 and 2005 (the economy was booming and presumably levels of contentment were higher) but not for the 2010 election (which took place against a much less optimistic economic background).

Answer 11

Devolution has produced more voting opportunities. The 2021 London Assembly election turnout was 43% Scotland- 2021 Scottish Parliament election turnout = 63.5% Wales - 2021 Senedd election = 46.6% NI - 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election = 63.61%

Answer 12

Brexit 2016 Indy Ref 2014 2004 Northeast regional assembly Ref

Answer 13

Elections Act 2022 could lower voter participation as photo ID is required at polling stations which can be burdensome for some.

Answer 14

Only 1.6 per cent of the electorate now belongs to one of the three main UK-wide political parties, whereas in 1983 the figure was 3.8 per cent. Conservatives have over 170,000 members in 2022 a significant drop from an estimated 400,000 in the mid-1990s. Labour has half a million members there was a significant increase in membership when JC was leader of a labour party in 2016 with 515,000 members. Membership increased after intro to £3 few in 2015 Liberal Democrats had 49,000 during the 2010-15 coalition with the Conservatives. However, recovered and now has over 90,000 members in 2023. Snap membership increased due to 2014 indy ref Num of people have decreased however quality of membership has increased For example participation is more centres towards politics rather than social benefits like it was in the 20th century. Even though conservative membership declined in 1943 cons claimed they had 2.8 million members now they have 170,000 showing those who remain are genuinely active participants.

Answer 15

The decline of partisan alignment. Simply being a member of a political party does not, of course, mean than a member is an active participant in political party actions. An active party member is likely to get involved in a much wider range of party activities, not just at elections. He or she might attend regular party meetings, campaign and canvass in the local community, or be a vocal supporter of the party using social media.