Modern

• Ways people can participate in politics

  • Voting
  • Becoming a candidate
  • Reading literature
  • Watching election broadcasts
  • Engaging with candidates
  • Attending hustings
  • Joining a political party
  • Party work
• Voting


  An important right for people in a democracy such as the UK
• Several countries do not benefit from the right to vote, e.g. military dictatorship in Burma, Somalia
• A low voter turnout


  May suggest people have lost faith in politics, and the result may not reflect the views of the electorate
• In Australia, you are fined if you fail to vote
• People are still desperate to get the right to vote, e.g. in Somalia the first government since 1991 was sworn in during August 2012
• Suffragettes in this country fought hard for women to be allowed to vote at the start of the last century
• Becoming a candidate


  People who put themselves forward as candidates are usually party members, although many recent MPs are relatively young
• Qualities needed in politics include being hard-working, good communicators and trustworthy
• Candidates need to pay a deposit and be nominated
• Political parties


  • Conservative
  • Labour
  • Green
  • Liberal Democrat
  • SNP
• Party work


  • Distributing leaflets
  • Badging and putting up posters
  • Helping at public meetings
  • Reading the manifesto
  • Telling people why their party is best
  • Volunteering to drive elderly people to polls
• First Minister


  An elected position in the Scottish Parliament
• Their party eg. Labour will be best for the country. They volunteer to drive elderly people to polling stations
• First Minister


  The political leader within the Scottish Parliament
• First Minister


  • Elected role
  • MSPs vote for the FM at the beginning of the parliament
  • Different from Westminster where the leader of the largest party is automatically Prime Minister
• In practice it has always been the leader of the largest party as they have the most votes e.g. in May 201
• Nicola Sturgeon was re-elected as FM as SNP have 64 MSPs compared to 31 for Conservatives, 22 Labour, 8 Greens and 4 Lib Dems
• There have been five FMs since the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999
• Work done by representatives 


  Attending and voting in debates at parliament or council meetings
• FM


  Head of the Cabinet
• MSPs

  • Make the main decisions in relation to devolved powers
  • e.g. Shirley Anne Somerville for education and Humza Yousaf for health
• FM's role

  • Have a clear vision about what they want for Scotland and then ensure that the decisions made by the Cabinet make this happen
  • e.g. Nicola Sturgeon has said it is unacceptable that poorer students generally do less well at school, and has told Shirley Anne Somerville to create policies in education to change this
• FM's accountability

  • Accountable to the Scottish Parliament, must be able to justify the decisions she makes
  • Main way is through FM Question Time each Thursday, where questions are sent to the Presiding Officer at least two days in advance and six are chosen, and a supplementary can then be asked
• Representatives

  • Usually a member of a political party, have to represent all the people in their constituency (not just those who voted for them) AND the wishes of their party
  • Sometimes this can cause a conflict of interest, e.g. not all Labour representatives are against independence
• Representatives' roles

  • Represent us both in the Scottish Parliament [Holyrood] and in the constituency [Mid fife and Glenrothes]
• Not everything is done by all representatives
• Work done by representatives (government, weekdays)


  • Attending and voting in debates at parliament or council meetings
  • Putting pressure on departments e.g. Health & Wellbeing
  • Talking about local matters in debates and asking questions e.g. at First Ministers Question time
• Work done by representatives (Thursdays)


  • Writing letters on behalf of constituents
• Work done by representatives


  • Be part of a Committee e.g. Education Committees exist at all levels of government
• Good parents are rightfully and easily understood
• A car winner is only a car for 2017 Con-DUP con
• Without for extremists (such as UKIP) to be successful
• Love party can donate eg Labour was three general elections with around 44% of the vote over half the voters wasted another party
• Smaller parties are poorly represented eg Liberals and SNP. Greens have one MP (Caroline Lucas, Brighton) but this is very unusual
• All other EU countries use a form of PR
• People may vote as they think it doesn't make a difference
• Proportional Representation


  In its truest form this means exactly what the name suggests ie. that if a party gets 40% of the votes they get 40% of the seats
• National List


  A version of PR used in Luxembourg, a very small country
• Additional Member System


  A system which is part PR and part FPTP, now used for the Scottish parliament