Test

• Evaluate the view that the UK is facing a participation crisis

  • Participation at the ballot box has decreased to 59% in 2001 and has been on a downward trajectory for UK general elections in the post war era.
  • suggests a crisis as participation at the Ballot Box is the most significant way that the electoral participate in politics.
  • Similarly, referendums have seen low participation
  • e.g. AV in 2004 - 42.2% in the same year, extension of welsh powers (assembly) - 35.6% turnout.
  • most significant indicator of participation there are extremely low turnouts suggests a participation crisis.
• Evaluate the view that the UK is facing a participation crisis

  • However, the 2001 can be explained by an element of 'hapathy' (not voting as happy with the status quo).
  • since 2001 turnout has been increasing e.g. 61.4% = 2005, 2010 = 65.1%, 2015 = 66.1%, 2017 = 68.7%.
  • Similarly, Brexit ref: 72.2% turnout and Scottish independence ref 84.6%
  • votes of great nation interest the electorate are willing to engage in the political system and therefore there is no crisis of participation
• Evaluate the view that the UK is facing a participation crisis

  • electorate perception of politicians
  • Keith Vaz chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee found to have hired prostitutes/ offered to buy them drugs.
  • Hypocrisy of Home Affairs chair breaking laws he is supposed to uphold.
  • As well as Boris Johnson favours to Jennifer Arcuri whilst London mayor.
  • People don't trust what they perceive as sleazy, untrustworthy, corrupt politicians disengage from the political process therefore participation crisis.
• Evaluate the view that the UK is facing a participation crisis

  • participation outside the ballot box is healthy
  • e.g. 4.2 million people signed the e-petition to overturn Brexit in the wake of the referendum result.
  • Also, in October 2018, 700,000 anti-Brexit marchers attended the Peoples vote march.
  • pluralist participation is occurring is occurring outside of the ballot box, suggesting no crisis
  • Similarly, climate change group Extinction Rebellion organised a civil disobedience campaign in early 2019 where tens of thousands of people attended 1000 where arrested.
• Evaluate the view that the Uk is facing a participation crisis

  • Political parties play a crucial role in representing the views of the public in Parliament
  • the effectiveness of the main political parties in doing this can be questioned, especially as there has been a dramatic decrease in political party membership.
  • Used to be 3.8% of the population in 1983 but now only 1.6% of the electorate with as few as 190,000 in the Conservative Party in 2019 (it was 400,000 in the mid-1990s).
• Evaluate the view that the UK is facing a participation crisis

  • reduction in participation in political parties could be because people prefer to be involved in single issues
  • they may believe involvement in cause pressure groups may better enable them to express their views
  • used social media to engage Public
  • seen not just with Extinction Rebellion but also the Occupy movement of 2011 and the growing use of things like e-petitions
  • in 2019 6 million people signed the e-petition to stay in the EU.
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • Traditionally UK has been a 2-party system with only Conservative & Labour capable of achieving political power at Westminster.
  • Since 1979 it could be more accurate to define the UK as a one-party dominant system.
  • The two main parties, Labour and Conservative, won on average a combined 91% of votes and almost 98% of seats in the Commons during this period,
  • suggests that there was little to no chance of any of the other parties breaking their monopoly of voter support and political power.
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • the two parties are receiving consistently less votes and support from the electorate.
  • voters have recently been voting for smaller parties such as the lib dems and green party.
  • Their combined support has been as low as 2/3 of voters in 2005 and 2010 and in 2019 only 76% voted for the two main parties.
  • This means that 1 in 4 voters chose to vote for another party and the only thing that prevents that being translated into a multi-party coalition government is the electoral system, FPTP.
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • The Lib Dems were initially one of the bigger parties in UK politics
  • Partisan dealignment meant that voters increasingly decided how to vote on the basis of issues and this meant they were less loyal to the two main parties
  • The lib dems support has been rising since the 1990's and this is shown with their increase in votes they gained 22% of the vote and 62 seats in 2005.
  • 2010 they received 23% of the vote and 57 seats which was enough for the Lib Dems to be in a coalition government with the Conservatives.
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • this was a short-lived moment for the Lib Demsthe 2015 general election saw a decline for them
  • electoral support 7.9% and they lost all but 20 seats leaving them as a very small and minor party at Westminster both in terms of voters and seats.
  • the SNP are a regional party
  • will never be a contender for single-party power at Westminster even if they may one day be in a coalition or able to influence votes in the Commons when the government majority is small.
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • minor parties that had done well in the 2015 general election saw their number and share of the vote decline in the 2017 general election.
  • voters now had a clear choice between the Conservative and Labour parties, who offered substantially different policies. corbyn v may
  • evidence of the traditional two-party system reasserting its dominance.
  • UKIP who went from 12.6% of the vote in 2015 to 1.8% of the vote.
  • Conservatives and Labour combined also won just over 82% of the vote, the highest share since before 1979
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • the fact that 24% of the UK electorate voted for parties other than the main two in 2019 suggests that 2017 may be a momentary return to the old two-party system in terms of voting behaviour.
  • in 2017 the Conservatives still ended up relying on the DUP to keep it in power
• Evaluate the extent to which the UK has become a multi-party democracy

  • The use of PR systems for the devolved assemblies suggests that the UK is a multi-party system in the regions.
  • 2016 elections in Scotland that saw the SNP form a minority government with both the Lib Dems and Greens also gaining 6 and 5 seats out of the 129 available.
  • Coalition government has also been a constant electoral result in the Northern Ireland Assembly due to STV, which is fully proportional.
  • deliberate to ensure that power would have to be shared between DUP and Sinn Fein in recent times.
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • PMQs are effective at holding the government to account and publicising political issues
  • PMQs receives extensive media coverage and attention on television and newspapers and so enables the opposition to publicise the govt's failings.
  • Starmer able to highlight the govt's failings in its actions over the corona virus, such as the failures of its testing, tracking and tracing policy, as well as the high number of deaths in care homes.
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • Both the King's and Budget Speeches enable the official opposition party to present themselves as a 'govt-in-waiting'
  • Achieves this by allowing them to criticise the govt's legislative programme in the King's Speech, but also they can outline their own programme of policies.
  • in the Budget Speech they can criticise the govt's economic and financial policies and offer their alternative policies.
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • the opposition's criticisms and alternative policies often has little impact in both parliament and the country
  • This is because the main focus of the media is usually the govt and its policies
  • Jeremy Corbyn's criticisms of Johnson's Queen's Speech in December 2019 received very little publicity
  • the govt's majority and the party discipline imposed by the whips ensures the govt win any division or vote on either the Queen's or Budget Speech.
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • opposition days, effective at holding government account
  • provide the opposition with the opportunity to decide the issue for debate in the Commons
  • Suggests that they can be effective in holding the govt to account over its policies
  • There are 20 opposition day debates and a defeat in these debates could also lead to a change in govt policy.
  • in 2009 Gordon Brown's govt gave Gurkha soldiers in the British army the right to settle in the UK after a defeat in an opposition day debate
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • opposition days ineffective, not enough
  •  20 days in a parliamentary session is a limited amount of time and the ineffectiveness of opposition day debates
  • May's govt's insistence that votes in them were not binding on the govt.
  • in October 2017 when the Commons voted to pause the roll-out of universal credit after Conservative MPs were instructed to abstain by the whips, May's govt disregarded the vote and continued with the policy.
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • the opposition can become more effective at holding the govt to account in advantageous political circumstances, so making them more significant.
  • When the govt has a small majority and are disunited them the opposition have the ability to defeat their legislative proposals and force changes in policy on them.
  • For example, May's minority govt after the 2017 election depended on a 'confidence and supply' arrangement with the DUP.
  • As a result, May was defeated some 33 times in 2 years,
• Evaluate the significance of the role of the opposition in the British political system

  • but generally govts enjoy working majorities and good party discipline provided by the whips
  • Blair suffered no defeats in 8 years between 1997 and 2005 due to the large majorities he had.
  • divided opposition parties,Corbyn's Labour Party between 2015 and 2017 will be ineffective
  • the opposition of many backbench Labour MPs to Corbyn's leadership meant that Cameron's Conservative govt were rarely defeated despite their small majority of 12.