Democracy and Participation

• Advantages of representative democracy

  • Govt is carried out by well-informed about political issues
  • They balance conflicting interests, protecting the rights of all citizens and ensuring the implications of decisions have been thoroughly examined
  • On controversial issues they balance the benefits to the majority with the more negative for the minority
  • Comprises the principle of accountability - if the public do not approve they can elect another MP - Recall of MPs act 2015
• Disadvantages of representative democracy

  • MPs represent a metropolitan elite of traditional values, leading to disengagement with the public and their interests
  • The media establishes a self-perpetuating Westminster 'bubble', disconnecting representatives from important issues for their constituents
  • MPs having second jobs can create conflicts, as seen with Owen Paterson's resignation in 2021 for lobbying on behalf of companies that employed him
  • First Past the Post (FPTP) system makes MPs unrepresentative due to the two-party system
  • House of Lords (HoL) is unelected
• Criticism of Parliament: 1. socially exclusive and therefore unrepresentative of the interest of contemporary society. However in the 2019 election was the most diverse with 34% women, 10% ethnic minority, 7% LGBT, 29% privately educated. However, some argue that MPs don't need to share the same characteristics as a group to represent their interests - Legislation advancing LGBT rights has been passed predominantly by heterosexual parliament.
• Democracy


  Rule by the people
• The concept of democracy is fundamental to an understanding of politics as it underpins all the concepts, ideas and topics you will be studying, yet it is a concept that sparks fierce passions and debates and conflicting attitudes
• The debates over Brexit


  Exemplify the conflicting attitudes towards democracy
• Some argued that the democratic 'will of the people needed to be respected, as the result of the 2016 referendum indicated the people wanted to leave the EU


  Others argued that it was up to Parliament to decide and that MPs should vote in the 'national interest and choose to remain in the EU
• Western democracies like the UK boast of their democratic institutions and accuse totalitarian regimes like North Korea of being undemocratic dictatorships, yet North Korea, like many Communist states, calls itself a 'Democratic People's Republic'
• Democracy


  Derived from the Ancient Greek demos (the people) and kratia (rule or power)
• Who the people are and how the will of the people should be translated into action is a matter of fierce debate
• Plato's view on democracy


  • Saw democracy as undesirable and worried that mob rule by the uneducated masses would be damaging and could lead to anarchy and chaos
• Democracy today is largely seen as a good thing, but people still debate its meaning and how it should be applied, as evidenced by the heated debates over Brexit
• Democracy


  About the process and means of translating the will of the people into coherent plans and action
• Direct democracy


  Also known as "Athenian democracy", was first conceived in ancient Greece, mainly in the city state of Athens in the fifth century BC
• Direct democracy


  • Every tax-paying citizen has one vote of equal value to all others and all citizens are able to contribute to a decision
• Direct democracy


  Important decisions are made by the assembled free citizens directly, fairly and equally, such as whether the state should go to war or whether a prominent citizen who has committed anti-state acts should be exiled
• After Athenian democracy declined in the fourth century BC, direct democracy, with a few exceptions, disappeared as a democratic form until the nineteenth century
• Today, direct democracy has returned in the form of the referendum, which is relatively common in Europe and some states of the USA
• Direct democracy today


  Should be seen as an addition to representative democracy rather than a separate system, one that can add great legitimacy to the decisions made by politicians
• Some decisions are considered so vital and also so unsuitable for representatives to make them that they are left to the people
• The size and nature of modern politics would make the regular use of direct democracy impracticable and so it cannot be considered as an alternative to representative democracy in the twenty-first century
• Advantages of direct democracy


  • It is the purest form of democracy
  • The people's voice is clearly heard
  • It can avoid delay and deadlock within the political system
  • The fact that the people are making a decision gives it great legitimacy
• Disadvantages of direct democracy

  • It can lead to the 'tyranny of the majority', whereby the winning majority simply ignores the interests of the minority and imposes something detrimental on them
  • The people may be too easily swayed by short-term, emotional appeals by charismatic individuals
  • Some issues may be too complex for the ordinary citizen to understand
• Representative democracy


  A more modern form of democracy, through which an individual selects a person to act on their behalf to exercise political choice
• Legitimacy


  The rightful use of power in accordance with pre-set criteria or widely held agreements, such as a government's right to rule following an election or a monarch's succession based on the agreed rules
• Representative democracy is the most common model found in the democratic world today
• Representative democracy


  The people do not make political decisions directly, instead, they choose representatives to make decisions on their behalf
• Choosing representatives


  The most common way is to elect them through a formal, competitive election process
• If representatives are not elected in a vote with some degree of choice, it calls democracy into question
• Elections are the first thing we think of when we consider representation
• Representative democracy ensures that those elected to positions of power and responsibility have to be held to account by the people
• Liberal democracy

  The right to vote is widespread and representatives act in the interests of everyone in society
• Majoritarian democracy

  The will / desires of the majority of the population are the prime considerations of the government
• Parliamentary democracy

  Parliament stands as the highest form of authority. The executive branch is drawn from and accountable to the people's representatives in Parliament
• Presidential democracy

  The executive is elected separately from the rest of the legislative body and is directly accountable to the people
• Direct democracy

  Citizens are directly involved in the decision making process
• Representative democracy

  People transfer the power to make decisions to an elected representative
• Majoritarian leaders

  • Boris Johnson
  • Donald Trump
• Majoritarian leaders held no strong personal beliefs and did what they thought would be popular with the public
• Scrutiny of the executive means Cabinet ministers are held accountable through Parliamentary democracy