Democracy and pressure groups 1,2

• What is democracy?


  Originally the word comes from ancient Greek made up of demos which means people and Kratos which means power/rule. So essentially democracy is people, power and that’s what it should create with the people ultimately determining the laws under which they live. They’re not having things imposed on them, they are making their choice.
• There are 2 basic ways in which this is done. But the initial one which was first used in ancient Athens is called direct democracy when people individually vote on particular laws. In ancient athens they probably met 10,12 times a month
• We see bits of direct democracy in the modern world in things like referendum issues and is used more in some countries than others.
• Representative democracy has become the dominant form of democracy in the modern world and this is where people vote for politicians who then make decisions on their behalf. Frequent elections mean that those elected are held to account
• Direct democracy 


  This is the earliest form of democracy, first used in ancient athens. The people (by which they meant adult, free men) would gather on the Pnyx hill

  and listen to speeches (anyone could speak) about an issue and then cast their vote for or against a motion.
• Whichever side of a debate got the most votes won

  Political offices were not elected but chosen by lot
• The negatives to this were people could be won over by good speaker / popular leaders (called demagogues). Also sometimes decisions could be overly emotional.For example, killing a general that actually won a battle .This meant sometimes decisions weren’t logical and weren’t in the best interest of the people.
• Direct democracy today-


  There aren’t any countries that use the old Athenian method as it would be rather impractical in the modern day.
• We do however see the use of referendums in Britain and also in other countries such as the USA
• Some countries use direct democracy a lot- for example Switzerland has about 10 referendum style votes a year. This means that the swiss people have a direct say over many issues
• Is this a good thing? It means that the will of the people is carried out but there have been what some see as worrying trends such as anti-immigrant laws being introduced. Some talk of the ‘tyranny of the majority.’ This brings in concern about whether the people necessarily vote for what is the best method or the best thing to be done
• Direct democracy in the UK-


  Direct democracy has had a major impact in the UK recently with the BREXIT referendum and its result.
• This has however highlighted that direct democracy is not normally a big part of UK politics as the move from vote to action has been very long.
• Britain is a representative democracy and many of the MPs didn’t share the view of the people. None of the major parties uniformly supported leave. (Brexit)
• Referendums are also not legally binding in the UK
• Representative democracy-


  This system is much easier to use in a modern society with a large population as people only have to vote once every 5 years or so (in theory but recently in the UK it has been more often)
• The idea is that the public pick people who share their views and that they think will represent them best. Normally representatives are members of

  a political party that publishes a manifesto on what they will do if they are elected.
• These representatives will then debate and vote on issues on behalf of the people. If the people don’t like what they say and do, they can vote for someone else in the next election.
• Does representative democracy work?

  In the UK we have constituency representatives who should therefore represent the view of people from our local area.
• The candidate who gets the most votes wins so more people wanted them than anyone else…

  But often they get less than 50% of the vote and therefore it is likely that more people disagree with them than agree with them.
• Similar things happen at a UK wide level, our current government got just over 40% of the vote but has a huge majority.
• Many people don’t trust politicians and don’t agree with any of the parties or live in an area where most people disagree with their views. How well represented are those people?
• The franchise is who can vote and this has a huge fundamental impact on our political systems. The voter base will change the kind of political system you have and the kind of decisions that the politicians in charge will make.
• We now take universal suffrage (all over 18s being able to vote) for granted. Having the right to vote for many is not a big deal and millions of UK adults for various reasons choose not to use their right to vote.
• For many people in the UK voting is their only active participation in politics and therefore their only way of having an impact on the decisions that are made.
• Currently you can vote in UK general elections if you are a UK or commonwealth citizen, resident in the UK or a UK citizen living abroad who has registered to vote in the last 15 years. You can’t vote if you are under 18, in prison or a member of the house of lords or have been found guilty of election-related crime. Foreign residents e.g. those from the EU cannot vote
• The franchise has grown over time with groups campaigning and fighting to gain the vote.
• If we go back to the beginning of the C19 only a small number of wealthy men could vote (some of them could vote several times) Constituencies varied enormously in size with some only having a handful of voters.
• Voting was done publicly so everyone knew how you had voted (which encouraged bribery or pressure). Some elections were uncontested meaning the only candidate won, often chosen by a local member of the aristocracy.
• Before 1832 only the upper class males who owned large amounts of property could vote. The 1832 great reform act extended the vote to many middle-class property owning men. 300,000 men gained the vote. Meaning now 20% of adult men could vote c5.6% of the total population)
• The chartists were a group that campaigned for the franchise to be extended to all men aged 21 and over, payment of MPs, a secret ballot, no property qualification for MPs, equal size constituencies and annual parliamentary elections.
• 1867 great reform act -


  Extended the vote to skilled workers men who paid their own rates and had been resident in a property for a year. Removed many rotten boroughs and gave MPs to industrial towns and cities that had not had MPs. 700,000 men gained the vote.
• 1872 secret ballot act - 


  Voting now done in secret, placed limits on spending and transporting voters to polling stations.
• 1884 reform act -


  Added 2.5 million male voters, giving the vote to a number of working class men for the first time. However remained biased towards the head of the household and therefore older rather than younger men, complex registration system prevented many of the working class from voting.
• 1885 redistribution act -


  Conservative government re-drew boundaries of constituencies. Constituencies were now to be roughly the same size and based on ‘pursuits of the people.’ This led to the creation of middle class constituencies in ‘villa toryism’ e.g. Sheffield Hallam.
• Suffragist groups such as the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) had been campaigning peacefully and for a number of years whilst the Suffragettes in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters had been taking direct action to get women the vote.
• The suffragettes were subject to police brutality and force feeding when they went on hunger strike.
• The actions of these groups and the role women played in WW1 led to women getting the vote.
• The sacrifice of working class men in the war also meant universal male suffrage from aged 21 was introduced. In a move that now seems bizarre women got the vote at 30 in 1918 before it being reduced to 21 in 1928.
• The thought at the time was that women matured more slowly than men which is why you’ve got the differential in voting age.