Representative democracy Flashcards
Division of Labour
A division of labour is created wherein ordinary citizens need not become directly involved in the decision-making process. Representative democracy allows everyone’s views to be considered in a way that is more practical in large, modern societies. Schumpeter considered representative democracy a credible solution to the problem of most people simply not having sufficient time or expertise to be able to continuously engage in complex political debate. This system enables individuals to select from a variety of politicians/parties, each offering different policy options, to represent them. Politicians present themselves to the electorate on a regular basis and remain accountable to the electorate for the decisions they make. Voters can remove representatives at a subsequent election if they are unhappy about their performance. For example Conservative MP Victoria Borwick lost her Kensington seat in 2017 as she didn’t represent her constituents’ views on Brexit. The representatives chosen by the voters are given an electoral mandate to act on behalf of the electorate. Therefore, this ensures popular control of the government though the use of regular elections as parties can be removed from power. For example, the Labour party won the 1997 general election by proposing policies such as the introduction of a national minimum wage and devolution. As a result of being put into power by the electorate it implemented its policies and was returned to power in the 2001 election. In conclusion, representative democracy is seen as a much more practical form of democracy for large, modern societies.
Decision making by experts
It is a politician’s job to make decisions so they have the time and resources to become informed on issues. Consequently, this should result in better decisions being made. Socrates and Plato argued that the majority of the people, because they were by and large ignorant and unskilled, would always get it wrong. They thought government was a skill and should be entrusted only to the skilled and intelligent, who were by definition a majority. Thomas Paine described government as “at best, a necessary evil”. On any particular issue, Paine would apparently trust an oligarchical clique to a mass of voters. To Paine, representative government was like that of sliced bread, he could not imagine anything better, nor did he see, apparently, any problems. Schumpeter is of elitist thought and believes that only elites in society should govern. In many ways, the democratic theory set out by Schumpeter can be likened to the model that is representative democracy. This is because one individual is allowed to represent many in a political system, the individual being the elite as in Schumpeter’s ideals. In conclusion, representative democracy should lead to better decisions being made for soceity than if every citizen was given the opportunity to vote as many won’t be educated on the issues.
Representatives don’t always reflect the wishes of the public
People need to rely on politicians to fairly represent their wishes. For example, Liberal Democrats had a long standing policy of scrapping student tuition fees but increased them when in coalition with Conservatives. It has been argued that representative democracy could give too much power to self-serving politicians who act in their own interests rather than the interests of the electorate. In the USA politicians have been accused of serving powerful corporate interests and organisations such as the NRA in order to raise funds for their election campaigns and this has led to accusations that it enables politicians to be bought and repay them with favourable legislation when in office. Tocqueville argued that democracy had some unfavourable consequences one of which was a preoccupation with material goods which suggests that representatives could always be ‘bought’. In October 2021 Owen Paterson, a former Conservative Environment Minister, was found to have breached paid advocacy rules. He helped lobby the Food Standard Agency and ministers at the Department for International Development on behalf of two firms he was paid to advise. In conclusion, representatives can ignore the demands of the people and use their position to suit their own agenda.
