Democracy and Participation

• In a direct democracy, citizens make the political decisions themselves. Referendums are a prime example of direct democracy in the UK.
• In a representative democracy, representatives make political decisions on citizens’ behalf. In the UK, MPs are elected to the House of Commons or other devolved governments.
• The UK uses e-petitions; any petition that attracts over 100,000 signatures is automatically debated in Parliament. Such as in April 2024, when MPs debated a petition on assisted dying, after accruing more than 203,000 signatures.
• Under the Recall of MPs Act (2015), a local MP can be recalled if they have been handed a prison sentence, suspended from the Commons for 10 or more days or been convicted of making false expenses claims. A by-election is triggered by 10% of voters signing a petition. The Act has been used 6 times, most recently in October 2023, where the MP for Wellingborough, Peter Bone, was given a suspension for bullying and sexual misconduct against a member of staff. This was successful, with 13% of constituents signing the petition to trigger a by-election where Labour won in early 2024.
• In a pluralist democracy, many people and groups are able to have political influence.
• Elitist political systems allow those with wealth and connections to exercise disproportionate power.
• The HRA (1998) sets out fundamental rights that belong to all in the UK, including the freedoms of speech and assembly and the Supreme Court frequently defends minority rights in its rulings, showing evidence of a pluralist democracy.
• Parliament has passed many laws that protect minority rights and vulnerable individuals such as the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act (2013) and Domestic Abuse Act (2021).
• Democracies can be judged on the following criteria; participation levels, the extent to which people and groups have opportunities for political influence, levels of trust and the protection of rights.
• The advantages of representative democracy are that representatives have the time and specialised knowledge to make political decisions and can take minority interests into account.
• Representative democracy relies on the good performance of those in power. Since 2019, 20 MPs have been suspended from the House of Commons or their party or have chosen to resign following allegations of misconduct.
• If turnout at an election is low there are questions about the mandate of the representatives.
• An estimated 75% of MPs supported Remain during the Brexit referendum in 2016, whereas only 48% of the electorate voted to remain in the EU.
• By giving decision-making power to the people, referendums can lead to reforms that would be very unlikely under representative democracy.
• In an era when participation is low in general elections, referendums can help to engage the electorate. General election turnout has been between 59% and 69% since 2001, yet the 2014 Scottish independence referendum had a turnout of 85%, and the 2016 Brexit referendum had a turnout of 72%.
• Referendums can over-simplify extremely complex issues – because there was no consensus over the terms on which the UK could leave the EU, Brexit was a much more complex issue than Remain or Leave.
• The first UK-wide referendum was the 1975 EEC referendum, of the 65% turnout, 67% voted to remain and 33% voted to leave.
• In 2011, there was a UK-wide referendum to replace First-Past-the-Post with AV. Out of the 42% turnout, 68% voted no and 32% voted yes.
• In 2016, the Brexit referendum had a 72% turnout with 52% voting to leave and 48% voting to remain.
• There was a fall in parliamentary productivity in the years after the 2016 EU referendum from the attention that needed to be given to Brexit.
• Several reforms to improve participation in the UK could be; lowering the voting age to 16, introducing compulsory voting, e-voting and prisoner voting.
• 89% of 16 and 17-year olds registered to vote for the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum. This is much higher than turnout among 18-24-year-olds in general elections: only 47% of this age category voted in the 2019 general election.
• Supporters of lowering the voting age argue that people are more likely to develop a lifelong habit of voting if they are encouraged to do so while they are at school or college.
• Research suggests that 16 and 17-year old voters in Scotland and Wales accessed information from a wider variety of sources than any other age group while considering how to vote.
• A poll in 2013 found that 79% of students believed the voting age should remain at 18. This beckons the question if 16 and 17-year olds actually want the vote.
• Among those already old enough to vote, only 34% support lowering the voting age.
• Compulsory voting would strengthen politicians mandate as turnout would consistently improve, for example, in Australia where voting has been mandatory since 1924, turnout is over 90%.
• Electoral Reform Society do not support compulsory voting because those voting only because they have to wouldn’t take their vote seriously, which might distort the result.
• In an era when so few 18-24 year olds vote in general elections, some believe that only a radical solution will improve their levels of participation and so much of society is online that it seems outdated that people can only vote in person or by post.
• Electronic voting in Estonia has been found to be vulnerable to hacking and fraud, this compromises the important democratic principle of voters’ secrecy.

   
• The Howard League are a pressure group that campaign for prison reform believe that extending the vote to prisoners would improve participation and help rehabilitate prisonersl
• Civil prisoners can already vote which creates a hierarchy of crimes which is deemed unfair by Howard League.
• Former Prime Minister David Cameron said: “frankly, when people commit a crime and go to prison, they should lose their rights, including the right to vote”.
• Insider pressure groups enjoy close relationships with those in government and their agenda tends to align with government policy. 
• Outsider pressure groups' agenda goes against government policy so they do not have close relationships and therefore may have to resort to direct action over lobbying.
• Stonewall is a LGBTQ+ pressure group that was an insider group during the Labour years and the 2010 coalition. They helped consult on the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act (2013). However they became an outsider group when its views on transgender rights opposed that of the Conservative government.
• Stonewall is still an insider group in Scotland as they helped draft the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in 2022, which was vetoed under section 35 by Westminster.
• ASH is frequently consulted by the government and Parliament regarding anti-smoking measures. The group has helped to draft policies on plain packaging, health warnings, and banning disposable vapes.
• Surfers Against Sewage have raised awareness of sewage dumping by water companies. Although Parliament has not yet legislated to prevent the practice, water companies announced in 2023 that they would spend £272bn on cleaning the UK's bodies of water.
• Senior doctors represented by the British Medical Association managed to negotiate a pay increase with the government after taking strike action in 2023.