How effectively does democracy work in the uk Flashcards
Free & fair elections
Wide variety of elections, citizens can choose representatives for a range of local and national Bodies elections this educates and participate in democratic process
Elections are free from the government manipulation, conducted by the Electoral Commission.
Rules: campaign spending limits, no campaigns in a period of purdah, restricts uk broadcast campaigning and given selected times.
Purdah
Period before the election or vote here member of local councils or government are not allowed to make any new statements or proposals that could affect the at in which people vote, usually between 4 to 6 weeks.
Turnout
Historic low of 59% in 2001 turnout has been steadily increasing from 65% in 2010 to 69% in 2017. People are starting to participate in the political process
Universal suffrage
everyone over The age of 18 who is not a prisoner, mentally incapable or a peer (member of the House of Lords) has the right to vote, one person one vote, no discrimination
The party system
Variety of political party and has more than 50, 8 in the House of Commons at 2017 and 11 have held seats before, good completions
Pressure group
Uk has thousands of pressure groups, they provide a alternate avenue of representation especially on minority issues
Raise awareness, investigate issues and educates the electorates
Devolution
Allowed the constituent parts of the UK along with many cities to make decisions on a local basis.
Unelected elements
Monarchy and House of Lords are unelected in a democracy
Turnout
low average below 75% participation crisis
the west Lothain Question and EVEL
devolution has created an imbalance in UK politics Scottish welsh norther Irish and London MP’s can vote on issues that do not affect their constituents but do impact other people
wasted votes
any votes cast for a candidate who does not win in a constituency play no role in the selection of representatives in parliament meaning that they are effectively wasted
safe seats
some constituencies elect a candidate from the same party in every election and the support required to win the constituency is so high voters see no point in voting for a different party
un-representative
differences in the concentration of support across the UK mean that the result of elections does not reflect the way the public voted
winner’s bonus
the system exaggerates the support received by the most popular party, which means the party receives more seats than is proportional to the number of votes received, thus boosting its majority in parliament.
discriminates against parties with widespread support
parties with support spread across the UK but not concentrated in a geographic area will find it difficult to gain seats and therefore representation, such as the greens, Liberal Democrats and UKIP