TOPIC 1

1. TOPIC 1 Democracy and Political Participation

2. Democracy Axel et al state that from the original Greek, the term means, rule by the people or by the many. Heywood using the same meaning, points out that there are two key principles on which democracy rests: - Political participation: key political decisions are made by the people - Political equality: each citizen has a free and equal opportunity to influence political decisions.

3. Types of Democracy Direct and indirect democracy may be distinguished according to how the people exercise their power in a democratic state • A direct (participatory) democracy is a state in which the people play a more direct role in taking decisions about the running of the country, e.g. Switzerland. Examples of direct democracy are referendums, recall and initiative. • referendum is a vote on a specific single issue or piece of legislation • recall, under which citizens can force a vote on whether to remove a sitting elected official by collecting enough signature on a petition • Initiatives, whereby citizens can propose new legislation or constitutional amendments by gathering enough signatures in a petition to force a vote on the proposal • An indirect or representative democracy is a state in which people play a limited role in making public policies. Between elections, the politicians rule, with limits, but they have a more active and direct role than the people.

4. Arguments for and against direct democracy For: • Promotes popular participation, thus giving people the right to determine their destiny • Helps people to have faith in themselves, their judgment and reduces or removes their dependence on politicians. • Ensures that rule is legitimate as people are more likely to take responsibility for the outcomes of the decisions that they make • Promotes citizenship education about society and how it works or ought to work.

5. Against: • Undermines and weakens representative government • Can threaten the rights of minorities • Many voters do not have sufficient understanding to make informed decisions, especially in the case of complex constitutional issues

6. Representative democracy • The dominant form of democracy in the modern world. • Is the core feature of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is representative democracy plus limited government. • The key features of a liberal democracy are: • free, fair and regular elections based on universal adult suffrage • Competition for power between a number of individuals and groups • guaranteed rights such as, freedom of speech, to hold public office • government is constrained by a constitution that is based on formal/legal rules • the media and interest groups enjoy independence from government • a capitalist or private enterprise economy. Forms of liberal democracy: • constitutional , which emphasises individual freedom and minority rights, as in the USA • majoritarian, which the views of the majority takes precedence over those of the minority, as in the UK

7. Representative democracy is a way of deciding who should decide, in other words, it is electoral democracy. The basic condition for representative democracy is the existence of democratic elections. Advantages: • It is the only form of democracy that can be practised in large modern societies • Decision making is placed in the hands of people, who for the most part, are better educated and with greater expertise than most of the general public. They can therefore be better placed to govern in the public interest • Ordinary people can use their time for other duties and activities and leave the day to day decision making to the people they choose to govern them • Removing citizens from the day to day decision making help to reduce conflicts that would otherwise arise if people are left to decide for themselves. A spirit of compromise is necessary for maintaining political stability

8. Representative democracy in the UK • Citizens elect representatives to sit in the Parliament and represent them. By doing this citizens hand over the decision to someone else. • Representatives are usually members of a political party, although anyone can technically stand for election. • MPs have a responsibility to listen to their voters’ concerns and make sure that they take these into account when making decisions • These MPs meet in the House of Commons and proposals become law if the majority of MPs vote to support the bill • Citizens have he right not to re-elect an MP they have previously chosen at an election • Citizens should enjoy freedom of speech, assembly and dissent (disagreement)

9. Nature and features of UK democratic system The UK has been described as the ‘cradle of democracy i.e. because the freedoms associated with democracy were, for the most part, established in Britain, e.g the Magna Carta 1215. Main features • Democratic elections • Universal suffrage • Electoral choice • Parliamentary democracy • Devolved assemblies

10. Democratic elections • Elections in the UK are defined as free and fair for several reasons: • Secret ballot 1872 • One person one vote 1948 • The use of proportional representation 1997 • The establishment of the Electoral Commission 2000 The fairness of the electoral system has been criticised for several reasons: some positions are not filled by elections, e.g. the monarchy, the House of Lords; FPTP can give a false impression of popular support for the winning party and creates governments that get less than a majority of the popular vote.

11. Universal suffrage • After a series of reforms that resulted in the elimination of voting rights based on ownership of property, on gender and on age, all citizens are eligible to vote on reaching the age of majority. • Nonetheless, the franchise is not extended to members of the House of Lords and the mentally incapacitated. A limiting, though not a legal barrier is poverty. Significant numbers of poor and disadvantaged people do not vote.

12. Electoral choice • The UK has a long tradition of parties competing for public office, notably the Conservatives and Liberals (19thC), the Labour Party (20thC), followed by the Liberal-Democrats, the Scottish National Party, the Greens, etc. • Different electoral systems, some based on proportional representation are in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Despite the number of parties the two-party system has become so entrenched over time that invariably the government is formed from either the Conservatives or Labour. Even with an inconclusive result in the 2010 general election the main group which forms the government is the Conservatives. Further choice is restricted since there is very little difference in policy between the main parties.

13. Parliamentary democracy • The popular election of Parliament or rather the Commons, promotes citizen participation and makes government accountable to the public through the elected representatives. • One key role of parliament is to oversee and examine the actions of government. However, parliament is said to be less than effective because: • The HoL is unelected hence its representative role is weak (members do not represent specific constituencies) • MPs are subject to party discipline and this tends to prevent them from taking an independent line in debates and in voting in parliament. • Parliament’s ability to control the government is further limited, given the government’s advantage of having the majority in the HoC.

14. Devolved assemblies • Several new assemblies were created in the UK in 1998, namely the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and out of the Good Friday Agreement the Northern Ireland Assembly. • These institutions helped to enhance democracy in a number of ways: • Each part of the UK now was able to speak for itself. Before, the interest of these regions were aired at Westminster which is dominated by English MPs. • Voters had the opportunity to express their opinions on national issues in their local assembly and on state issues through their representatives at Westminster. Nevertheless, democracy is still to be fully experienced since, - The devolved bodies were granted only certain powers, mainly to legislate on local issues such as education and health care. Major economic and foreign policy decisions are still made at Westminster - The people of England who accounts for 84% of the .population do not have similar institutions, hence representation democracy for them is limited.

15. European Parliament Since 1979 UK citizens have the opportunity to influence policies that affect Europe through elections to the European Parliament. The use of closed party list (a PR system of election) has broadened the representative nature of UK parties that are elected to the Parliament, e.g. small parties such as the Greens. However, the parliament is the least influential of EU institutions, it has limited policy making powers and weak control of the European Commission which is the executive-bureaucratic arm of the EU(this is where real power is exercised). Fears have been expressed that the growing influence of the EU in UK affairs is eroding the latter’s sovereign power and hence it’s independence as a democratic state.