Uk Democracy

Question 1

PMQT
PEELREEL

Answer 1

P: PMQT = effective
E: Allows for direct access to those most in power + public chance to expose gov
E: JL asked about the expansion of the borders railway through Hawick and Carlisle 22nd June 2022

R: PMQT = ineffective
E: Descend into shouting + no. of questions limited
E: 300 MPs apply each week, only 15 accepted

Question 2

Voting (HoC)
PEELREEL

Answer 2

P: Voting = effective
E: Voting can sometimes defeat the will of the gov by outnumbering them on bills, is easier to beat minority then majority govs
E: in 2013 MP’s voted against gov motion urging UK military involvement in Syria

R: Voting = ineffective
E: Because gov usually keeps their party voting how they want them to via party whips and ignoring it = facing punishment eg. Kicked out
E: In 2015 the gov won a vote to launch air strikes against Islamic state terrorists in Syria which PM instated a 3 line whip

Question 3

Holding Up Legislation
PEELREEL

Answer 3

P: Holding Up Legislation
E: HoL scrutinise and amend bills + bill cannot pass without consent from HoL
E: 2022 the HoL successfully amended the employment residential accommodation bill.

R: Holding up Legislation = ineffective
E: Any changes have to be voted on in commons too so changes can be rejected.
E: Changes to Article 50 in brexit were suggested by HoL but rejected by HoC

Question 3

Parliamentary Representatives holding the Government
Main Points

Answer 3

• Votes in House of Commons
• PMQT
• HoL holding up legislation

Question 3

Debates
PEELREEL

Answer 3

P: Debates = effective
E: Lords have more specific expertise and can discuss more controversial topics to make sure legislation is better
E: Debate on prescription charges in England contained former GP’s, consultants and President of Mencap

R: Debates = ineffective
E: Said experts do not turn up to improve bills via debates
E: On average around 57% of Lords attend debates

Question 4

Powers of the Executive (PM)
Main Points

Answer 4

• Power of Appointment/Dismissal
• Party Leader
• International Statesman

Question 5

Power of Appointment and Dismissal
PEELREEL

Answer 5

P: Power of Appointment and Dismissal
E: Can hire or fire those he sees as friends or enemies giving him power to control high level decisions
E: Rishi Sunak re-shuffled his cabinet in Feb 2023, making Lucy Fraser culture, media and sport secretary

R: Can be limited by coalition govs
E: With a coalition you need people who are part of both parties so PM does not fully get to control appointments
E: Nick Clegg appointed Chris Huhne as Energy and Climate Change secretary in 2010.

Question 6

Party Leader
PEELREEL

Answer 6

P: Power of being party leader
E: Chairs the cabinet to keep favourable topics in rotation and push back others
E: Boris had to conduct virtual cabinet meetings in Covid

R: Can be limited
E- Party leader relies heavily on the support of their party and MPs to push through bills they want so if no support
E- January following a failure of Mays Brexit bill Conservatives MPs triggered a vote of no confidence 15% of MPs must write a letter stating they have no confidence – 48 letters were received.

Question 7

Ways citizens can influence decision making (20)
Main Points

Answer 7

• Voting
• Joining a political party
• Standing as a candidate

Question 8

Voting
PEELREEL

Answer 8

P- Voting
E- By voting citizens can elect those they feel best represents them and their ideals in government
E- 2017 snap election John Lamont was elected with an 11,000 majority and replaced Callum Kerr

R- Restricted as Votes wasted
E- Due to the FPTP system votes who did not vote for winner are irrelevant
E- R- FPTP doesn’t provide representation
R- Small parties underrepresented doesn’t take into account spread votes leaving smaller parties with nothing
E- Green had 506, 669 votes but only 1.7% of seats in 2019

Question 9

Joining a political party
PEELREEL

Answer 9

P- Joining a political party
E- Allows citizens to participate in the party and its leader more effectively
E- Jeremy Corbyn received very high
levels of support from Labour party members despite not being very popular with Labour MPs in 2015.

R- Restricted
E- Members often do not have that much say or power over matters
E- Brexit has proven to be a subject which has caused real divide particularly in the Conservative party.

Question 10

Standing as a candidate
PEELREEL

Answer 10

P- Standing as a candidate
E- People can stand for their beliefs themslevs and stand as an election candidate as long as they meet requirements
E- Rishi Sunak stood as a candidate in 2015 for the Richmond (York) constituency and has been MP since

R- Restricted
E- Due to long standing stereotypes some have better chances than others
E- Following the 2015 UK Parliament election, almost a third (32%) of MPs in the House of Commons went to private school, according to an analysis by an education charity.

Question 11

Alternative forms of governance (20)
Main Points

Answer 11

• Economy
• Democracy
• Defence

Question 12

Economy
PEELREEL

Answer 12

P- Economy
E- Unionists believe Scotland would be worse off as they spend more than UK gives them
E- In 2019-2020 the fiscal deficit was £15 billion which is roughly what was spent on the NHS in Scotland

R- Nationalists believe otherwise
E- Believe in the long run it will be better off as many small countries leave big ones and become richer
E- Ireland was poorer per capita than UK before leaving but is now richer than Scotland

Question 13

Democracy
PEELREEL

Answer 13

P- Democracy
E- Unionists believe that staying is better as they are represented in both parliament to better the country
E- Johnson’s UK gov won only 25% and 6/59 Scottish seats but still promised to protect Scottish fishing industries

R- Nationalists believe otherwise
E- Aslong as Scotland is part of the UK there is always a risk of being outvoted by the bigger country
E- Brexit the majority of people in most constituencies in Scotland voted to remain yet they still had to leave

Question 14

Defence
PEELREEL

Answer 14

P- Defence
E- Unionists believe Scotland benefits from sharing the defence capabilities as they are very expensive
E- SNP plans for defence for a single squadron of fast jets but UK has 4 times that positioned in Scotland

R- Nationalists believe otherwise
E- They can join a mutual defence groups like NATO to meet their defence needs in an affordable way
E- Fast jest from multiple NATO countries are deployed in Estonia to defend airspace from Russia

Question 15

Methods of Pressure groups
Main Points

Answer 15

• Protests
• Petitions
• Lobbying MP’s

Question 16

Protests
PEELREEL

Answer 16

P- Protests
E- Effective as can publicly bring attention and take action towards aim
E- In 2013 there were numerous protests in the UK about the so-called “Bedroom Tax”, protestors came out against UK Government cuts to welfare
spending

R- Can be unsuccessful
E- Can be ignored and rarely results in change
E- In 2003 1 million people marched against the war in Iraq however the war went ahead anyway

Question 17

Petitions
PEELREEL

Answer 17

P- Petitions
E- Can show support of public to gov and force action to be taken
E- around 320,000 signatures on the sanitary products taxation stop was accepted in 2016

R- Can be unsuccessful
E- Does not always garuntee change and can just be ignored if no signings
E- The petition to revoke article 50 and remain in the EU attracted over 6 million signatures and was debated in House of Commons on 1st April 2019. Yet the decision taken was “This Government will not revoke article 50.”

Question 18

Lobbying MP’s
PEELREEL

Answer 18

P- Lobbying MP’s
E- Groups find politicians to try and persuade politicians to support their cause
E- in 2021 Scotland will become the first country in the world to have a LGBT inclusive education system as the TIE pressure group lobbied enough MSPs and Government Ministers eventually gaining their support.

R- Can be unsuccessful
E- Mp’s can be unsympathetic and ignore groups, particularly outsider groups that are unheard of
E- the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has been lobbying MPs in parliament for over 40 years but the UK government has not acted

Question 19

Effectiveness/ineffectiveness of Pressure groups
Main Points

Answer 19

• Media coverage
• Tactics
• Size and Funding

Question 20

Media coverage
PEELREEL

Answer 20

P- Effective because of media coverage
E- positive media can bring attention to campaign and grow support
E- Black Lives Matter uses #BLM which spread from USA to the UK and between July 2013–2020 it has been retweeted 47.8 million times.

R- Ineffective because of media coverage
E- Negative attention is more likely to discourage people and stop gov supporting
E- Summer the violence surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests took away from the cause by the media focusing on the violence.

Question 21

Tactics
PEELREEL

Answer 21

P- Effective because of tactics
E- Legal and peaceful tactics leads to spreading word of cause and more tempting to join
E- 320,089 signatures to stop taxation on sanitary products and this was accepted in parliament in 2016

R- ineffective due to tactics
E- Law breaking tacts are less likely to gain support of go and can be seen as irresponsible
E- 2016 London Million Mask March by Anonymous (group against internet censorship and surveillance) ended in 53 arrests for drug use, destruction of property etc

Question 22

Size and Funding
PEELREEL

Answer 22

P- Effective because of size and funding
E- Large and well resourced groups are more likely to attract attention, have connections to gov and have funding to campaign more
E- The pressure group CBI represents over 200,000 businesses, the PM and Chancellor often attend CBI meetings and dinners

R- Ineffective because of size and funding
E- Smaller groups with less funding often have less resources and connections than bigger so have less impact on gov
E- Greenpeace rely on public donations to pay for their campaign – 2017 95.3% of their funds came from individual donations

Question 23

Unelected bodies
Main Points

Answer 23

• Media Coverage
• Size and Funding
• Lobbying MP’s

Question 24

Voting System
Main Points

Answer 24

(FPTP)
- Simple for the voter
- Provides of majority gov
- Relationship with MP’s

Question 25

Simple for the voter
PEELREEL

Answer 25

P- Simple
E- Simple to understand as put an ‘x’ to vote and most votes wins, appealing to voters
E- 2017 1% of papers were spoilt

R- However, winner takes all
E- No matter how many votes received you win nothing if you don’t win
E- 2015 in Derby North the winning candidate, Conservative Amanda Solloway retained the seat with 36.7% of the votes and the Labour candidate received 36.6%. The majority was just 41 votes!

Question 26

Provides majority gov
PEELREEL

Answer 26

P- Provides Majority
E- Allows MP’s to follow through with promises and manifesto as no compromise with others
E- Conservatives won 331 of the 326 needed for majority in 2015

R- Not guaranteed
E- No one voted for coalition and can result so not representing public votes
E- 2017 conservatives fell short of majority with 318 votes of 326 and formed a coalition with DUP

Question 27

Relationship with MP’s
PEEREEL

Answer 27

P- Relationship with MP
E- Only 1 MP so can have a relationship with MP and a clearer view on who will help
E- John Lamont was elected in 2017 taking the seat from Callum Kerr who was only elected back in 2015.

R- Small parties underrepresented
E- Doesn’t take into account spread votes leaving smaller parties with nothing
E- Green had 506, 669 votes but only 1.7% of seats in 2019

Question 28

Voting systems
Main Points

Answer 28

• Choice
• Representation
• Simple

Question 29

Choice
PEELREEL

Answer 29

P- AMS provides choice
E- 2 votes for constituency and regional seats so can vote for different parties etc
E- If you are a conservative voter you may vote for conservative representative but use regional vote for SNP

R- FPTP doesn’t
E- Only one vote for an MP, only one winner
E- John Lamont was elected in 2017 taking the seat from Callum Kerr who was only elected back in 2015

Question 30

Representation
PEELREEL

Answer 30

P- AMS provides representation
E- Votes are proportional to seats percentage meaning represents votes
E- 2021 Scottish parliament election, conservative 21.9% of constituency vote and 23.5% of regional vote. Received 31 seats, 24% of total

R- FPTP doesn’t provide representation
R- Small parties underrepresented doesn’t take into account spread votes leaving smaller parties with nothing
E- Green had 506, 669 votes but only 1.7% of seats in 2019

Question 31

Simple
PEELREEL

Answer 31

P- FPTP Simple
E- Simple to understand as put an ‘x’ to vote and most votes wins, appealing to voters
E- 2017 1% of papers were spoilt

R- AMS harder to understand
E- Confusing system with 2 votes meaning more spoilt papers than FPTP
E- 2021 Scottish parliament election turnout rate 63%

Question 32

International Statesman
PEELREEL

Answer 32

P- Power of international statesman
E- Leadership home and abroad, making alliances, represents UK
E- Boris made his debut as PM at G7 meeting in Biarritz August 2019

R- Can be limited
E- Means on the stage of criticism, seen as leaving UK, meet unfavourable leaders
E- Theresa May received criticism after her first meeting with trump where she failed to condemn his travel ban executive order.