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Summary Democracy and participation
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notes for democracy and participation
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Democracy and participation:•Direct democracy - All individuals express their opinions themselves and not through
representatives acting on their behalf.
• No elections as citizens represent themselves
• Originated in ancient Athens, where adult male citizens had the right to take part in
decision-making at public meetings
• An example of direct democracy is a referendum
•A referendum is a direct vote on a
single issue, usually requiring a
response to a straight yes/no question
•The UK has had only three
nationwide referendums:
– On Britain’s membership of the
European Economic Community (or
European Union) in 1975 and 2016
– On whether to change the system of
voting for the Westminster Parliament
in 2011
•Social media has enabled people to support e-petitions,which allow people to register a
viewpoint online.
• 100,000 signatures will trigger a debate in parliament
– September 2020: Review the decision to
use previous data to calculate exam grades (148,000 signatures and a
government response)
– The Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU e-petition gained 6.1 million signatures
Advantages:
•gives equal weight to all votes,unlike a representative system where the varying sizes of
constituencies mean that votes do not all have equal value
•encourages popular participation in politics by expecting people to take their duties as
citizens seriously
•removes the need for trusted representatives,as people can take responsibility for their own
decisions
•develops a sense of community and encourages a genuine debate
Disadvantages:
•may not necessarily be that effective
•your voice may not be heard—could even be silenced
•impractical in a large heavily populated modern state,where decision—making is
complicated
•many people will not want to—or feel qualified
•Representative democracy- Individuals elect a person (or political party) to act on their
behalf to exercise political choice
• Citizens delegate their authority to their
, representatives
• The usual form of democracy
• Representatives do not act as delegates
(taking instructions from the voters)
• They are expected to exercise their judgement.
• Representatives can be held to account and removed at the next election
• All adult citizens have the right to vote in
free and fair elections
Advantages:
•the only practical system in a large modern state,where issues are complex and often need
rapid response(e.g development of troops)
•politicians form parties, bringing coherence and giving people a real choice
representative—pressure groups form to represent different interests,promoting debate and
encouraging pluralist democracy
•reduces chances of minority rights being overridden by ‘tyranny of the majority’
•elections allows people to hold representatives to account
•politicians are (in theory)better informed than the average citizen about the many issues on
which they must take a view
Disadvantages:
•may lead to reduced participation to as people choose to hand responsibility to politicians
•representatives may ignore or distort the demands of the people to suit their own political
advantage
•representatives may follow their party instead of represents their constituents accurately
•may be difficult to make representatives accountable between elections
•representative democracy may result in too much political conflict which can only be
resolved by direct democracy
Accountability:
•Those elected in a representative democracy must be made responsible for their policies,
actions, decisions and general conduct.
•in election campaigns the opposition will highlight problems with elected representatives
and representatives respond by defending and explaining their
actions.the public considers this when
voting.
•In between elections, the legislature (parliament) will question elected representatives and
point out their bad decisions.
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