Democracy

• Advantages of representative democracy

  • Government is carried out by professional politicians who are required to be well informed about political issues
  • They are more likely to make politically educated decisions than most members of the public, who may be swayed by emotion and may not fully understand the complexities of a question
  • Before a parliamentary bill is enacted, it will have been drawn up by ministers and civil servants, been debated in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and been further analysed in committee stage when amendments may be added to it
• Representative democracy

  • Elected politicians balance conflicting interests when reaching decisions
  • This is important in protecting the rights of all citizens, especially minorities, and ensuring that the implications of a decision for all members of the community have been thoroughly examined
  • Over controversial issues, parliament balances the benefits to the majority with the more negative impact on the minority
• Representative democracy


  • Comprises the principle of accountability
  • In regular elections the voters can decide whether to renew the mandate of their representatives
  • If the public do not approve of the policies or performance of a government, they can elect another one
• Edmund Burke: ''Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.''
• Burke was a known opponent of slavery, and the wealth of Bristol's merchant class was founded on the slave trade
• Burke's support of the American revolutionaries similarly put him at odds with most of his constituents
• Burke's justification of his right to choose his own position is often used to underpin the principles on which representative democracy is based
• Representative democracy


  A system of government in which power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through elected representatives
• Disadvantages of representative democracy

  • MPs represent a metropolitan elite that does not represent the more traditional values of the population
  • MPs can be disengaged from the public and so do not adequately represent their interests
  • Powerful pressure groups, lobbyists and the London-based media establish a self-perpetuating Westminster 'bubble', which disconnects representatives from the issues that are important to their constituents
• In the 2016 EU membership referendum 52% of the public voted to leave the European Union, whereas 74% of MPs had been in favour of remaining
• Mikhail Bakunin: 'Representative democracy is a sham since it seeks to falsely legitimise the rule of the 'intellectual governing minority, who, while claiming to represent the people, unfailingly exploits them''
• Emma Goldman: 'If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal'
• Russell Brand: 'UK parliamentary democracy is 'designed to sustain the current power structure. . .be under no illusions. . .that is its primary objective''
• MPs can have outside interests, including second jobs (so long as they declare them), which can further contribute to a conflict of interests and possibly compromise their ability to fully represent their constituents
• In 2021, Owen Paterson resigned as an MP after he was criticised by the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards for lobbying on behalf of companies that employed him
• In 2021 Sir Geoffrey Cox MP, the former Attorney General, was also criticised for earning £900,000 for legal work he undertook in addition to his MP's salary
• The Westminster Parliament is highly unrepresentative because it is elected through first-past-the-post (FPTP)
• The House of Lords is unelected and so unaccountable to the public, further undermining Parliament's representative function
• The social make-up of Parliament is still primarily white, male and middle class
• The 2019 general election did elect the most diverse House of Commons ever, as Table 1.1 illustrates, men and those educated in private schools are still substantially over-represented in Westminster
• The social background of MPs is much more middle class than it was in the parliament elected in 1945
• Eighty-five per cent of MPs also attended university and 19% graduated from either Oxford or Cambridge
• Some argue that MPs do not need to share the same characteristics as a group to represent their interests


  Legislation advancing LGBTQ+ rights has been passed by predominantly heterosexual parliaments
• A powerful criticism of UK representative democracy is that it is least likely to engage the poorest and most marginalised in society
• In 2018, the Hansard Society estimated that 83% of higher (A/B) social groups were prepared to participate in politics, compared with 41% for less prosperous (D/E) social groups
• Only 2% of homeless people were registered to vote in 2018
• Direct democracy


  A form of democracy in which decisions are directly made by the public without their opinions being channelled through representatives
• In a direct democracy there is no distinction between government and citizen. Instead, there is continuous engagement
• Types of direct democracy

  • Referendums
  • Electronic petitions
  • Consultative exercises
• Referendums

  • 2014 Scottish independence referendum
  • 2016 EU referendum
• Referendums


  Enable the public to directly express their views on single issues
• Referendums


  Provide the public with a direct choice which can help to settle controversial issues, but the result can lack conclusiveness
• Electronic petitions

  • Petition on government website reaching 100,000 signatures considered for debate
  • Marcus Rashford's #EndChildFoodPoverty petition gaining over 1.1 million signatures
• Electronic petitions

  Can raise public awareness and debate, but may also raise false expectations and consume parliamentary time
• Consultative exercises


  Set up when governing bodies want to assess the likely reaction to their proposed policies, provide a way of engaging the public on issues that directly affect them, but the public's opinion is not binding
• Consultative exercises may not be representative as the most socially disadvantaged groups are least likely to engage
• Advantages of direct democracy

  • Engages the public and makes politicians more responsive to what people really think
  • Creates a closer connection between the public and political decision making
• Advantages of direct democracy

  • Provides the public with more opportunities to make decisions
  • Creates greater engagement in the political process
  • Encourages a more politically educated and civically involved citizenry
• Advantages of direct democracy

  • Ensures that representatives are kept better informed of developing public attitudes through referendums, consultative exercises and electronic petitions
• Disadvantages of direct democracy

  • Referendums dangerously simplify questions to a binary 'yes/no' when the issues are much more complex than that
  • The UK's departure from the EU raised highly complicated issues such as the UK's relationship with the EU customs union and the EU single market, and the border status of Northern Ireland, none of which were addressed in the 2016 referendum