Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Government
and Politics Unit
1- Democracy
- Types of Democracy
- Direct Democracy
- Ancient Greece where all the
members of a state met to
discuss matters and make
votes on things daily
- Principles surviving in modern democracy:
- All citizens have right to vote and stand
for office
- Duty of all citizens to actively participate
- Decisions should be made by majority vote
- Why it is not practical
- Today's society is too large
- Needs time, commitment
and informed citizens
- Representative Democracy
- People choose someone to
make decisions for them
- Elective representative
- Democracy Definition
- A system where the power is
ultimately in the hands of the people
- A political system organised on the basis
that the government should serve the
interests of the people
- Manifesto Defintion
- The document that sets out the party's
intentions for the bills that they will
introduce should they be elected
- Voters base their decision on the manifesto
- Winning party's manifesto forms
the basis of the mandate
- Mandate Definition
- The authority to govern, granted to the
party that wins the general election
- Government must introduce measures
from their election mainfesto unless they
have a good reason not to
- Parliament tries to ensure manifesto commitments
are stuck to
- Gives the government the authority to take whatever action it
deems necessary in an emergency
- Democratic Deficit
- Is a lack of people taking part in
political life and a lack of actual
power they can use to influence
political decisions
- Welsh devolution referendum
had a total turnout of 35.2%
- 63.5 voted yes
- Tyranny of
the minority
- Non-elected posts in politics e.g HoL
- FPTP disadvantages smaller parties
- Labour party need 33,000 votes
when the Lib Dems need 120,000
- Parliament ineffective in scrutinising
government
- EU Parliament has jurisdiction over UK Parliament
- Participation crisis
- Party membership declining
- only 500,000 party members
(1.3% of electorate) in 2006
- in 1981 it was 1.5million
(4% of the electorate)
- Tories have had the biggest
drop from 1.25m to 250,000
- Voter turnout
- General election results
- 1998- 78%
- 2001- 59%
- 2005- 61%
- Partisan dealignment
- Fewer feel naturally drawn to
a particular party
- Fewer take active part in politics
- Due to rising income levels blurring class lines
- Improvements
- Use of 'e=democracy'
- Fraud risk seems frivolous
- Compulsory voting
- Devalues a vote
- New forms of political
participation
- Pressure groups
- E-Petitions
- 1.8 million people signed a petition
about road pricing in 2007
- 2011-Hillsborough had
156,202 signatures
- Led to an inquest
- Protest
- 2003- 1 million march in Iraq
(link to pressure groups)
- Ignored by government
- Protests are usually ignored except in
the case of the poll tax riots in 1990
- Outcme of it
- Could make British politics more democratic by
according to Power Commission Report 2007
- Capping donations
- Reforming electoral system
- Elect HoL
- Each voter allocation £3 of
public money to a party
- Lowering voting age
- Logging and listing ministerial meetings
- Referenda
- Government can chose to
ignore results
- Would be a foolish
government to ignore it
- Results usually come out in
the government's favour
- They pick the timing, wording and
existence of the referendum
- Expensive – possible that one side
can fail due to lack of resources e.g.
1975 EU referendum when 'yes' side
spent far more than 'no', had support
of business – therefore money
- Issues can often be oversimplified by the tabloid press, could lead people to
make a decision that they believe to be informed when they have only been
informed by the likes of Rupert Murdoch – gives editors and proprietors too
much influence.
- Examples of Referenda
- 1975 referendum about staying in EU
- Wilson's Labour government was split over
issue, but a decisive 67.2% 'yes' vote saved the
government & resolved deadlock
- 1998 referendum on introduction of a London Mayor.
- Changed governance and implied
rise in taxation, made consent
essential
- 1998 Good Friday Agreement
- A decisive 'yes' vote was needed to make sure all
sections of society were in favour & end violence. In
1973 there was a similar vote, but most Catholics
boycotted it, so the result became irrelevant.
- 2004 referendum on NE Assembly
- Decisive (77.9%) 'no' vote made
government drop plans for more regional
devolved assemblies. May have been lost
due to the fact that the proposing minister,
Prescott, was deeply unpopular.
- Power Definition
- Ability to get people to do
what you want them to
- Can exist without authority
- person brandishing gun has power but no
authority; armed policeman has power and
authority
- Authority Definition
- The right to tell people
what to do or the right
to govern
- Can exist without
much or any power
- Three types of authority
- Traditional authority
- Rulers call for the
consent of the
people, on the basis
of continuity, history,
respect for
institutions and
religious tradition..
- Example: Monarcies
- Charismatic authority
- Authority based on the
charisma of the leader –
a 'cult of personality'
- Example: Tony Blair
- Rational Legal
- Based on
elections
- Sovereignty
- Can be used
in various
contexts
- Legal- ultimate
political authority
- Power to make enforceable
laws, exercised by the UK
Parliament but shared with EU
- Political- ultimate
political power
- In a democracy, political
sovereignty is held by the people at
elections and the government
between them
- External
- Legitimacy within a territory, as
recognised by other states. Where
right to govern is widely recognised,
state can claim sovereignty
- Potential Questions
- 5 marker
- Define representative
democracy (5)
- Define direct democracy (5)
- Apart from voting in elections and
referendums, describe two ways of
participating in politics
- How does a referendum differ
from an election
- Using an example, define direct democracy
- 10 marker
- What are the main features of the UK's
democratic system (10)
- In what ways has political participation declined in the UK in
recent years (10)
- Explain three forms of democratic participation
- Explain the arguements in favour of lowering the voting
age
- Explain the arguments in favour of making voting compulsory
- Explain three criticisms of representative democracy
- 25 marker
- How and why has the UK
democratic system been
criticised
- Evaluate the effectiveness
of the various ways in which
participation and democracy
could be strengthened in
the UK
- Assess the arguements in favour
of the greater use of direct
democracy in the UK
- To what extent would the wider us of referendums improve
democracy in the UK
- How effectively does representative democracy operate in the UK
- Assess the various measures, other than electoral
reform, that have been suggested to improve
democracy in the UK