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Democracy and Participation, The case for reform of the
democratic system…
- Democracy and Participation
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1.3 Pressure groups
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Types of pressure
groups
Interest/sectional groups
- Represent a section of society eg trade unions - membership is linked to a particular occupation or part of society eg BMA
Cause groups
- Seek to promote a particular cause eg charities and environmental groups - membership is not limited unlike sectional groups eg Greenpeace, Amnesty International
Social movements
- Similar to a cause group, but lacking a formal structure - usually politically radical and aim to achieve a single objective eg Camps for Climate Action
Insider groups
- Groups regularly consulted by the government, with regular access to government ministers eg the Confederation of British Industry
- Can be low or high profile
- Tend to have influence because their aims are broadly in line with the government's views, however their relationship with government can restrict the types of activities they would adopt
Outsider groups
- Groups with no links or access to government
- Forced to use other methods of influence eg the media - examples include the Animal Liberation Front
- Groups may purposefully choose to be outsiders (due to their radicalism) or simply be denied access to government
- Outsider groups often have a higher profile than insider groups, due to their publicity-seeking tactics
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1.4 Rights in context
Major milestones
Magna Carta 1215
- First example of a statement of rights protecting citizens
- King John agreed to govern England and deal with its people according to customs of the feudal law
Human Rights Act 1998
- Incorporated the ECHR into UK law
- The first time a legal documentation of UK citizens' rights was enshrined in law
- The main function was to make citizens' rights explicit in law
Equality Act 2010
- Legally protected people from discrimination in the workplace and wider society, replacing previous anti-discrimination laws with a single act, strengthening citizen's protections
Debates over the extent, limits
and tensions within the UK's
rights-based culture
- Increased use of judicial review has indicated
growing prominence of rights
- Examples of successful challenges to policy include High Court rulings that retired Gurkha soldiers should have the right to live in the UK (2008)
- Judicial review enables the legality of government actions to be properly scrutinised
- Others argue it places too much power in the hands of unelected and unaccountable judges
- Many right-wingers have criticised the Human Rights Act for showing favour to undeserving individuals, rather than protecting legitimate freedoms of UK citizens (Abu Qatada deportation case)
- The Conservatives have argued for the replacement of the HR Act with a new 'British Bill of Rights', which would establish supremacy of British courts over ECtHR
Conflict between civil liberties and national security
- The 9/11 terror attacks and 7/7 bombings in 2005 led to government measures that limited civil liberties in the interests of protecting the wider community
- Ministers argued that they were entitled to detain terror suspects without trial on the grounds of a national emergency, which the law lords ruled was discriminatory in 2004
- In 2005, the Blair government's proposal to extend the period a suspect could be held before being charged, from 14 to 90 days, was defeated in the Commons, the government subsequently compromised on 28 days - this period was later halved under the coalition government
- Governments have tended to prioritise the safety of society over the protection of individual rights eg in 2013, pro-human rights pressure group Liberty failed to stop the introduction of 'secret courts', which permit terrorist suspects and major criminals to be tried without evidence against them being fully disclosed
- Similarly, the Howard League for Penal Reform, which campaigns for the rights of prisoners, has struggled to persuade the government to implement its agenda - governments are unlikely to side with pressure groups which campaign for the rights of minority groups, who the wider public regard as undeserving of sympathy
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Participation
crisis
Voter turnout
- Governments are elected on a reduced share of the popular vote, calling the strength of their mandate into question
- Turnout of 2001 general election was 59.4%, however has increased to 67.3% in 2019
- Turnout in 'second order' elections is even lower - turnout in the May 2016 local elections was 33.8% - may be because voters see less powerful bodies as unlikely to influence their lives
Is there a participation crisis?
- Membership of pressure groups, particularly those concerned with single issues eg the environment, has increased
- Direct action have become a recognised feature of modern politics, seen in an increase in demonstrations on issues including fuel prices, the Iraq War and fox hunting
- The emergence of social media has enabled people, particularly the young, to engage in politics and online campaigns eg an e-petition in 2007 against proposals for road-charging, was signed by 1.8 million people
- The rise of new forms of political engagement may be seen as a positive development, but it is still a cause for concern that so many people are uninvolved in traditional politics
- One explanation is political apathy - a lack of interest or awareness of contemporary events and political issues that affect society
- To some extent levels of participation depend on the type of issue at stake - turnout for the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 was at 84.6%
- The generally negative public perception of politicians explains both declining voter turnout and increasing interest in alternative political activity - examples of dishonest behaviour by MPs and broken electoral promises reduce trust in democratic politics
Disadvantages of direct democracy
- Impractical in a large, heavily populated modern state where decision-making is complicated
- Many people will not want to, or feel qualified too, take part in decision-making, so political activists decide what happens
- Open to manipulation by the smartest and most articulate speakers, who will persuade people to support their viewpoint
- Will of the majority is not mediated by parliamentary institutions, so minority viewpoints are disregarded
Disadvantages of representative democracy
- May lead to reduced participation as people choose to hand responsibility to politicians
- Parties and pressure groups are often run by elites pursuing their own agendas, not truly representing the people
- Minorities may still find themselves underrepresented as politicians are more likely to follow the views of the majority to secure election
- Politicians are skilful in avoiding accountability, especially as general elections are usually five years apart
- Politicians may be corrupt and incompetent, may betray election promises or put loyalty to their party before responsibility to the electorate
How should the system be reformed?
- Suggestions include: changing the day for elections from Thursday to the weekend, allowing people to vote anywhere in their constituency, allowing voting to take place over several days
- Other suggestions such as encouraging wider use of postal voting, and allowing electronic voting are open to questions about security and discrimination
- Many have argued for a reduction of the voting age from 18 to 16, which was allowed in the 2014 Scottish referendum
- Another proposal is compulsory voting, as practiced in Belgium and Australia
Should voting be made compulsory?
- Voting is a social duty as well as a right - people should be engaged in the processes that affect their lives
- It would produce a parliament that is more representative of the population as a whole
- Politicians would have to run better quality campaigns, and governments would have to frame their policies with the whole electorate in mind
- Voters are not obliged to vote or one of the candidates if they conscientiously cannot do so - it would still be legal to spoil a ballot paper
Voting should remain voluntary
- In a preferential voting system, where votes number candidates in order, compulsory voting might lead to participants simply placing candidates in rank order
- It is undemocratic to force people to take part in something that should be a matter of choice
- It would not stop politicians focusing their campaigning on marginal seats, and neglecting safe seats where the outcome is predictable
- Compulsory voting does not address the deeper reasons why people decide not to vote
Public opinion
- Outsider groups often attempt to influence public opinion in order to directly influence government policy - public support for an issue will put pressure on the government into taking action on the issue, as there may be electoral consequences if they don't eg protests against tuition fees and cuts to the welfare budget
Direct action
- Includes measures such as strikes, blockades and boycotts, designed to disrupt the running of the country - civil disobedience is an element of this
- Eg anti-war campaigner Brian Haw protesting outside Parliament for five years from 2001
The courts
- Some groups seek to influence through legal means
- These are attempts to challenge government policy on legal grounds, through the use of judicial review
- Even if unsuccessful, the challenges can gain publicity for the group's cause eg opponents of the proposed HS2 took their argument to the Supreme Court in 2014