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