introductions for the essays Flashcards
devolution
for a while there has been a debate concerning whether scotland should remain a member of the UK with a devolved parliament or should become an independent country. devolution is the passing of power from a central government to a more local government, which means that scotland has some powers devolved to them that allows them to deal with issues related to them, like health and eduction. however, independence means that a country is able to make individual decisions and is able to have full power over all its issues and matters without input from the rest of the UK. some argue the former is the best option, while others argue for the latter.
voting systems
elections are important processes for politics because they bring in the opinion of what government the people want to have in power, which is the whole point of democracy. for democracy to be properly functional, there needs to be fair, understandable, and representative voting systems for the people to use in order to send in their vote and receive a government they want. however, there is more than one kind of voting system, and in this essay the two to be discussed are first pass the post (FPTP) and the additional member system (AMS). these are two very different voting systems which have different measurements of effectiveness in fairness, representation and complexity.
parliamentary scrutiny
accountability is the responsibility and scrutiny of the government and is important because in order for democracy to be functional, it is vital that the government is there only to carry out the actions that the people voted for rather than ruling them, and this is only possible when the government is open and honest with the public, including ministers being questioned. the sp was introduced in the hope of creating an openness where the different parties work together as opposed to just arguing and contradicting each other like we can see in westminster. there have been many different approaches to holding the government to account, including through committees, FMQs, opposition, and passage of legislation.
