Democracy
Key definitions and Language:
Types of democracy
Political equality is when everybody’s ability to influence politics is of equal worth
Political participation is the way in which people participate in politics
This can be achieved by several means:
voting in elections and referendums
Joining a political party
Joining a pressure group, or protesting
Standing for office
Joining a trade union
This is achieved when everybody has the opportunity to vote
And also when everybody’s votes has the same worth
consent- given permission, e.g when voting, voters give their consent to their representative
legitimacy- something is legitimate if it has consent
Representation- acting on behalf of others e.g MP’s
Accountability- someone in office having to justify their actions and potentially be removed if nessecary
Participation- participation in politics, e,g voting
pluralism- when power is spread out across the government
executive- the part of the government which implements laws
Judiciary- inteprets law, and settles disputes
Legislature- the body that makes laws e.g parliament
law or legislation- a rule that is binding on all members of a society
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Direct
A direct democracy is a democracy where the people represent themselves
This is achieved by all citizens voting e.g in a referendum
In a direct democracy there is no executive or judicial function
An example of this system of democracy is through a referendum or initiatives
Indirect
In an indirect democracy, people elect other peoples to represent their views and interests
In an indirect democracy the legislature makes laws, and there is a president of prime minister who is the chief executive
Examples of an indirect democracy, are most modern countries, e.g the UK and the US
Presidential and parliamentary democracies
Presidential
Parliamentary
In a presidential democracy’s the electorate has 2 votes: one for the president and one for the legislature
In a parliamentary system, voters have one vote for the legislature- no specific vote for PM
The public chooses its representatives, and the leader of the biggest party in parliament forms a government And becomes chief executive e.g prime minister
The president is directly elected and hence has a personal mandate from voters
The strength of UK democracy:
The UK is a democracy
The Uk isn’t a democracy
Referendums are not a massive part of the UK culture , and they are extremely uncommon, furthermore although we have had several across the last 20 years, many are irrelevant and ineffective. E.g AV referendum of 2011
The human rights act is not entrenched, meaning that a majority government could easily erase this if they attempted, e,g 2022 possible HRA erasure due to Rwanda policy
Although elections are held in the UK, due to the nature of FPTP, elections are not nessecarly representaive , and many people are forced to vote for a party which they may not prefer due to tactical voting
Referendums- in the UK we have one example of a direct democracy through referendums. Examples of referendums held in the last 20 years are the Brexit referendum, 2016 , the Scottish independence referendum in 2014
The Human rights act of 1989 also exists in the UK which protects the human rights of people in the UK.
In the UK elections are held- general elections every 5 years, devolved assembly elections, land local elections . Within these elections all votes are casted through a secret ballot and all votes are equal