Parliamentary Democracy and Representation Flashcards
Thomas Hobbes on Representation
- sovereign power lies entirely with ‘the office of the sovereign representative’ which exists for ‘the procuration of the safety of the people’
- Commonwealth < social contract < agreement amongst individuals to be represented
- the ‘people’ only exist once a sovereign power is established - ‘A people is a single entity, with a single will: you can attribute an act to it. None of this can be said of a crowd’
- Leviathan - armour made of people, individuals are authors of the sovereign = representation
How is representation fundamental to modern government?
- as a mechanism to ensure all citizens can be heard
- a superior form of government (effective conflict management)
- the source of political power (direct democracy is inefficient)
- as a process of exclusion: citizenship, voting rights, the problem of representation is not quantitive (no. of votes), but qualitative (fairness of procedure)
James Madison on Democracy
the effect of representation is to ‘refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations’
James Madison on Democracy
the effect of representation is to ‘refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations’
Churchill on democracy
‘Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried’
‘The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter’
- historically conceived as mob rule/threat to society
G.B Shaw on Democracy
Democracy is ‘the substitution of election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few’
C. Attlee on Democracy
‘Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking’
Formal v Substantive rule of law
free and fair election = protection of fundamental rights (speech, association, minorities)
universal franchise = rule of law
political parties = judicial independence
free press = separation of powers, accountability, pluralist public sphere, stable institutions
Is the UK a democracy?
- Government has the single largest minority of those who vote
- ‘Manufactured majorities’ and ‘pluralitarian democracy’ - elective dictatorship
- The British constitution ‘knows nothing of the people’ - Bogdanor
- ‘We are the people of England that have never spoken yet’ - Chesterton
Key points on ‘manufactured majorities’
- Until 2010, no British government had been elected with even a bare majority of votes since 1945
- Exception: May 2010 general election Coalition 59% of votes
- Conservative highest share of vote in 1955 - 49.7%
- Labour highest ever share in 1951 - 48.8% LOST
Westminster form of democracy Characteristics
- power hoarding
- parliamentary majority
- party competition
- individual liberalism (free and autonomous pursuit of self-interest - Hobbes/Locke)
Westminster democracy characteristics
- majoritarian electoral system
- two-party system
- bare-majority governments
- fusion of executive and legislative powers
- competition between government and opposition
- weak bicameralism
Consensus Model (power sharing)
- smaller countries challenged legitimacy and primacy of majority rule
- different linguistic/religious groups
- majority rule not acceptable/compromise
- political stability through negotiation/compromise
- governance through coalition of parties
- a proportional electoral system
- a multi-party system
- coalition governments
- executive-legislative power balance and proportionality
- negotiated compromise among major participants
- strong bicameralism
- No Hobbesian sovereignty
