Democracy and participation

Question 1

What questions could be asked for democracy and participation?

Answer 1

Is the UK in a participation crisis?

Evaluate the view that reforms to democracy in the UK haven’t gone far enough?

Evaluate the view that there should be greater use of direct democracy in the UK?

Evaluate the view that the extent to which the UK remains a genuine pluralist democracy?

Evaluate the extent to which reforms to the political system have improved the UK’s system of representative democracy?

Question 2

Different types of democracy:

What is democracy?

Answer 2

Rule by the people (when the people have influence over the political decisions that affect them)

Question 2

Different types of democracy:

What are the different types of democracy?

Answer 2

Representative and Direct democracy

Question 3

Representative and Direct democracy:

What is representative democracy?

Answer 3

Representative democracy is a system where people choose leaders to make laws for them on their behalf, instead of voting on every issue themselves e.g. through political parties.

We have many different political party groups and we vote for individuals (MP’s) who represent us.

These representatives don’t have to do exactly what voters say however they’re expected to exercise their own judgement on decisions that affect their community and held to account by people through regular elections (if the people don’t like the person they’ll vote for another)

Question 4

Representative and Direct democracy:

What is direct democracy?

Answer 4

Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which individuals vote on laws themselves not through representatives acting on their behalf.

This can be seen though referendums where people are given an issues to vote on

Question 4

Representative and Direct democracy:

How is direct democracy used today

Answer 4

Many countries use referendums e.g. Brexit referendum 2016 (the UK voted on whether it wanted to leave the EU) and Scottish independence referendum (Scottish people voted whether or not Scotland should be its own independent country)

2015- Recall of MP’s Act- Allows a petition to be triggered if an MP is sentenced to be imprisoned or is suspended from the House of Commons for more than 21 days.

So if 10% of eligible voters in a constituency and the MP’s constituency sign the petition a by-election is called and therefore that MP is replaced showing how the people have a direct impact on decisions that get made and hold representatives to account.

Question 4

Representative and Direct democracy:

What problems has direct democracy raised in the UK

Answer 4

The UK is ultimately a democratic representative system based on parliamentary sovereignty.

Parliamentary sovereignty is the idea that Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or end any law.

However, the direct democracies e.g. referendums (Brexit referendum 2016) lead to parliamentary sovereignty and popular sovereignty to clash.

Popular sovereignty is the idea that the ultimate political authority is based on the will of the people.

In the Brexit referendum, the public disagreed significantly with their representatives with no major party supporting leave or remain and about 75% of MP’s supporting remain compared with the majority of the country supported leave showing the disconnect between representative and direct democracy.

This combined that referendums in the UK aren’t legally binding led to a second referendum campaign and Brexit taking a long time to complete and eventually needing an election in 2019 to eventually complete. This shows how the use of direct democracy in the representative system in the UK raising problems

Question 5

Representative and Direct democracy:

What is a pluralist democracy

Answer 5

Pluralist democracy is a form of democracy where governments make decisions as a consequence of the interaction between groups and organisations who have different ideas and contrasting arguments.

It’s a very good democracy right as you want a lot of groups to be having a voice to be having a influence on the outcome. This should be encouraged as it ensures that all voices in society are heard and its less likely that minority groups to be neglected.

Question 5

Representative and Direct democracy:

What are the key points to pluralist democracy

Answer 5

pressure groups

the role of direct democracy between elections

how responsive representatives are to the electorate

Question 6

Representative and Direct democracy:

What is legitimacy

Answer 6

Legitimacy is the legal right to exercise power e.g. a governments right to rule following an election

Its really important for governments as it validates the policies of those are that are in power as it shows that they are supported/chosen by the public of the people so the current gov should have legitimacy because it has been elected by the people.

If there was a non-democratic government they wouldn’t have the legitimacy of the people to make laws as they haven’t been elected by the people.

Question 6

Representative and Direct democracy:

What is the protective perspective on democracy

Answer 6

Protective democracy is the idea that
UK democracy is healthy if it has a decent amount of political participation enough to grant legitimacy to the government so it can be effective and represent people but it doesn’t need mass political participation to be considered healthy and if there are elections which have a turnout of 60% -90% that’s not really a problem under this view of democracy

Question 6

Representative and Direct democracy:

What are the protective and developmental perspectives on democracy

Answer 6

Developmental democracy is the idea that believes that you do need mass system participation in order for a democracy to be healthy and when you have turnout figures such as 60% it shows that there is a lack of political interest and a lack of political participation is a problem for democracy.

Question 7

Similarities between direct and representative democracy

What are the similarities between direct and representative democracy

Answer 7

both are types of democracy designed to implement the will of the people and
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based on the concept of majority rule with the people voting playing an important role so citizens still vote on

policy in representative democracy by voting for Representatives who will align with their policy positions they just don’t they don’t simply just elect

a representative who then completely decides on policy right they select the representative because of How likely they are to select certain policies

so it’s still really about implementing the will of the people as direct democracy is they can both be implemented at

different levels of government including local Regional and Nationals so for example referendums direct democracy you
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see them at local level you see them at a national um level but also a regional level for example the Scottish independence

the media so that’s not just in direct democracy where uh political demagogues and politics can be really
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um persuasive and have a big sway over the people it’s also true of representative democracy
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and crucially direct dartsy plays an important role in representative democracy for example through petitions

and pressure groups which put forward the views of the public so these these ideas of petitions and pressure routes within representative
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democracy also important to pluralist democracy to having a pluralist democracy um and it’s the idea yeah these
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representative democracy requires some democratic some direct sorry Democratic elements in order to be really
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successful and represent the people well not just at election times but also in between elections so to continue to be responsive

Question 7

Differences between direct and representative democracy?

Answer 7

indirect democracy individuals Express opinions themselves whereas in representative
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democracy citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf so that’s the key difference right citizens
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are a lot more involved in decision making on a regular basis in direct democracy requiring a lot more of
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citizens so citizens really have to um engage a lot more in politics in representative democracy there are

political parties whereas there aren’t indirect democracy though there are campaigns on each side of the debate so for example in the brexit referendum we
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didn’t have political parties but you did have a yes um campaign um or a leave campaign in a remain campaign so you
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still have that in direct democracy in representative democracy a government is elected which can be held accountable
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um by the people um that’s not so much in in direct democracy right there might be some
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elements of government um which can be held account but representative Marx is really structured on being able to hold to account
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um that government it can’t be hold to account yourselves right um if you have um that majority ruled and everybody
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voting there are more protections and representation for minorities in
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representative democracy whereas direct democracy acts through the rule of the majority so that’s one of the we’ll go on to now one of the key Christians of
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direct democracy they act through tyranny the majority and if say you have 51 support for something the remaining
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49 aren’t really that protected and they don’t get a voice whereas in representative democracy because you have electing representatives so a
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minority might elect a representative to represent them even if they don’t form the government they still play a
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significant role and can Advocate on behalf of that minority group and then finally representative
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democracy can be seen as being able to handle complex and Technical political decisions um political decision sorry whilst
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direct democracy can’t um and that links a to the kind of the fact that in representative Moxie you
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have professional politicians um but B Just the practicalities of direct democracy right so say during the
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covert crisis director democracy would not have been able to respond um so effectively and so quickly obviously a
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lot of countries including the UK didn’t respond very quickly or effectively but direct democracy would have been a lot slower and less effective

Question 7

Advantages of direct democracy

Answer 7

advantages of direct democracy is that it gives equal weight to all votes which contrasts the representative democracy
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where the electoral system and constituencies mean that votes are of an equal value so obviously if everybody gets a vote
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and is the majority that wins and that’s how direct democracy functions and each vote is equal
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it also encourages participation in politics removes the need for trusted representatives and minimizes the
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possibility for corruption um or the will of the people not being followed and you can really see that
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um kind of uh see concerns in relation to representative democracy not really representing the people that well and
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there is being kind of elements of corruption in the influence of money um in UK Parliament and in UK politics
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so don’t democracy wouldn’t have that so much it also develops a sense of community and encourages genuine debate with
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people feeling like they have a real stake in the political system which can be really important in encouraging
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participation and having a general sense of kind of generally more functioning democracy if you take the developmental
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perspective in terms of disadvantages um it can be seen as impractical in
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large heavily populated modern states which have complicated decision making many people will not feel qualified to
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take part in decision making on a regular basis um or they might not want to make important political decisions they want
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to leave it they may want to leave it to Representatives um in direct democracy kind of people
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can also be open to manipulation by the cleverest emotic most articular speakers and minority viewpoints this is kind of