Evaluate the view that the UK system of representative democracy remains in need of
improvement. (30)
Representative democracy refers to the system of electing representatives such as MP’s to
represent the interests of the public in parliament, assembly or council chamber. This essay will
examine the strengths of the UK’s system of representative democracy and determine that
these strengths are not so strong and therefore remain in need of improvement. For example,
although electing MP’s provides legitimacy, this is undermined by the unelected House of Lords.
The current FPTP voting system does not represent small parties, however introducing a PR
voting system could lead to a weak government as it has in countries like Israel.
The strongest point in favor of improving representative democracy is the lack of participation.
Although, ‘e-democracy’ makes voting and democratic participation easier which encourages
representation- especially among young people. If an e-petition gets 100,000 signatures then
parliament debates it. Examples of successful e-petitions include: Leaving the EU petition 2014
which received 350,000 signatures, and Revoke Article 50 petition 2019 with over 6 million
signatures. Another way which could improve representative democracy is to introduce
compulsory voting. It is used in 32 countries and it would encourage people, especially the
young and ethnic minorities, to make themselves more informed in politics and vote. This would
increase turnout, as proven in Australia where it has been 96%, which gives greater democratic
legitimacy to those that win the election. Also, more sections of society would be involved,
ensuring that their concerns would be addressed- not just those who vote. In addition, 16 and
17 year olds cannot vote- meaning that their views are not represented at all even though they
are old enough to be in the army, get married and pay taxes.
However, e-democracy and compulsory voting has disadvantages. For example, some are
unable to get online, especially older people, which would create a digital divide and they
wouldn’t be represented, especially if online voting and digital campaigning were to be
implemented. Compulsory voting could also produce ill-informed participation as those who
know nothing about politics would be forced to vote. Overall, the reasons for improving
participation are strong as currently a lot of social groups who don’t or can’t participate aren’t
represented. Compulsory voting should be introduced and 16 year olds should be given the
right to vote so that everyone is represented. Forms of online participation, however, shouldn’t
be introduced to avoid a ‘digital divide’ and the risk of hacking.
Another strong point in favor of improving representative democracy is the voting system. The
UK currently uses a FPTP voting system which can be unrepresentative of small parties. A way
to improve the voting system could be to introduce proportional representation (PR) which
would be fairer as the seats in parliament would be distributed more evenly. It would also end
‘safe seats’ and reduce the number of wasted votes which proved to be an evident problem in
the 2015 general election where the conservatives won a majority of MP’s with only 36% of the
vote and UKIP gained 1 MP with nearly 4 million votes, while the SNP gained 53 seats with
under 1.5 million votes. This also could create greater engagement in politics if there were fewer
‘wasted’ votes as people would feel like their votes count more. This would increase
participation meaning that more people would be represented, especially for those who support
smaller parties like LibDems or Green voters as they would have more opportunity to elect an
MP under a PR system.
However, alternative systems of voting can be confusing and more complicated than the FPTP
system. It could create ‘weak’ coalition governments with no majority which is shown in Israel
who use PR. In 2019 they had 2 elections but still failed to form a functional government as they
had no majority. In addition, evidence from abroad suggests that PR does not improve
participation and has roughly the same turnout as the UK- Israel 2019 had 70% turnout, Italy
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