Democracy and Referendums (race to 100)

Question 1

Explain why the UK can be described as a liberal representative democracy

Answer 1

• Representative democracy = voters elect politicians to make decisions on their behalf because the public lack the time and expertise to vote on all political decisions
• Liberal democracy = a democracy that emphasises the protection for individual liberty and rule of law

Question 2

What are the criteria that a liberal representative democracy has to meet to function efficiently? (7)

Answer 2

1) Free and fair elections

2) Representation

3) Participation

4) Legitimacy

5) Accountability

6) Rights protection

7) Education

Question 3

List the ways in which it is possible to argue that the UK is in a participation crisis

Answer 3

• 1.08% of the population were members of political parties in 2016 compared to 3.8% in 1983
• Since 1997 general election turnout has always been under 70%
• Declining union membership since Margaret Thatcher reduced the power of unions
• Low non-general election turnout: EU election turnout in 2014 was 34% and the Police and Crime Commissioner election in 2016 had a turnout of 27.3%
• Low referendum turnout: AV referendum had 42% turnout

Question 4

What is meant by a Democratic deficit?

Answer 4

When supposedly democratic organisations or institutions such as governments do not fulfil democratic principles

Question 5

What is the difference between collective and individual rights?

Answer 5

Collective = rights held by a group as a whole rather than individual members and also applies generally to society e.g. ethnic groups or the right to public education

Individual = rights held by all people regardless of their group identity

Question 6

Pick 2 institutions in the UK and explain how they protect rights (unfinished)

Answer 6

• The Supreme Court = they are the highest court in the UK, they often deal with cases to do with an individual’s rights being infringed such as Lee v Asher’s Baking Company (2018)

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Question 7

List 3 ways in which direct democracy is used in the UK

Answer 7

Direct democracy = when people are actively involved in the political decision making

1) Referendums: used ad hoc in the UK (whenever necessary) on issues of significant constitutional changes, this is a popular vote on a single issue

2) E-Petitions: UK Parliament petitions website allows the public to put pressure on the govt. to consider issues

3) Citizen’s Assembly: a group of people brought together to learn about and discuss an issue to make a recommendation to government

Question 8

Explain the relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and direct democracy

Answer 8

Some may argue that direct democracy infringes on Parliamentary Sovereignty as power is removed from Parliament and transferred to the people. However, referendums are non-binding meaning that legally the government does not have to implement a policy decided by referendum, this could be very difficult to do and will harm the government’s legitimacy as they would go against the will of the people

Question 9

Give 2 reasons why a government might call for a referendum on an issue

Answer 9

• To legitimise a major constitutional reform
• To justify devolving powers to regions

Question 10

Give 2 examples where a referendum was damaging to democracy, explaining why

Answer 10

• The 2016 EU election where only 52% of people were in favour of it meaning 48% of the population had their opinion ignored, this is further shown by the 6.1 million signatures on the e-petition to revoke Article 50 and rejoin the EU
• in 4 of the 13 referendums have had a turnout below 50%