Democracy and Elections in the UK

by 06leeugh06 (student)

Lee Gouldsbrough

Unit 1: government policies and the public service

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives this is because we are a society based on equality of opportunity and individual merit. It’s a system of welfare and retribution aimed at narrowing social inequalities and it is a system of decision making based upon a majority rule.

Here is a list of the levels of politics starting from the lowest first:

Local (councillors)
Regional
National
European
International
Multinational
Global

Several variants of democracy exist, but there are two basic forms, both of which concern how the whole body of all eligible citizens executes its will. One form of democracy is direct democracy. This is where people vote on a policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representative who then vote on policy initiatives, e.g.: ancient Rome, modern Switzerland and USA at federal level. Another type of democracy is representative democracy this is a variety of democracy found on the principle of elected people representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy. Three countries which use this democracy are the United States of America which is a presidential republic, the United Kingdom which is a constitutional monarchy and Poland which is a parliamentary republic.

Liberal democracies usually have universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of race, gender or property ownership. Historically some countries regarded as liberal democracies have had a more limited franchise and some do not have secret ballot. The bad thing about this is that you might feel pressured to vote for somebody that you don’t want to because if you vote for someone else they will know who you are and there will be consequences or maybe where you live might vote for different people and you may be out casted from everyone else.

To vote in the UK you must be 18 years on or before the polling day but there are discussions about maybe making this 16 years of age. For you to be able to vote you must be British or any other common wealth citizen or an Irish citizen that is a resident in the UK and you must not be a convicted prisoner currently serving a prison sentence.

In the UK there are several types of elections but the most commons ones are the local elections and the general elections. Local elections happen every 4 years and ...

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In the UK there are several types of elections but the most commons ones are the local elections and the general elections. Local elections happen every 4 years and not all of the councils have elections at the same time. General elections occur when all the seats in the House of Commons are open for re-elections. Without another general elections the maximum that the parliament can sit is for 5 years and 3 weeks, however when the party who is in power thinks that they might have the best chance on winning they usually call for an election between 3 to 5 years this is so they can stay in power for longer. The prime minister is the person who makes the decision. The party that is in power have opportunities to make popular moves such as reducing the taxes before an election, they do this because it gives them a much more advantage for the public to vote for them and for them to have another term in the office.

Whether you can stand or not for an election depends what type of election it is. For a parliamentary election, whether it is a general election where all 646 UK constituencies are open for re0election or a by-election for just one constituency, you have to be at least being over 21 and have to be a British, commonwealth or republic of Ireland citizen. You also need to be nominated by at least 10 of the registered electors in the constituency and if you want to stand for a particular party you must have received authorisation from the party. However if you do not get authorisation from the party you will be classed as being independent. To be able to register as a candidate you will have to pay £500 deposit, however if you receive over 5% of the votes you will get this money back.

There are no candidate election procedures if you are going to stand as an independent representative but as long as you are eligible you can stand for office. However other political parties often have more potential candidates than what they need to fill the seats up they are hoping to win. To ensure that the best candidate or the candidate most likely to win the seat a selection procedure is necessary. For this there are many selection methods, for example:

The local branch of the party can interview the potential candidates to find the one they want to serve their area. A party may draw up a shortlist containing only women or only candidates from ethnic minorities so as to increase the diversity of MPs’ in the party, but this can be controversial tactic and not everyone agrees with it.
Also the party can draw up a list of centrally approved candidates from which local branch can choose. The list is drawn up in a vigorous way and in many ways mirrors the public services selection procedures. There will have been a paper sift of the candidates’ CVs and application forms, background check will have been run and they may have been subjected to a weekend full of aptitude tests. Existing MPs’ who want to stand for election again are normally automatically approved.

In the area that a candidate wants to represent they should become well known in the area, they will do a great amount of publicity work, this can be from leafleting houses, displaying posters to going from door to door for votes. However publicity costs money and so the more wealthy parties will have a lot bigger advantage than the independent parties. Also during a general election you will see party political broadcasts for the main parties outlining their policies. This is because they can afford to do publicity campaigns that include adverts and film making. Usually during election campaigns the main parties often have publicity campaigns that usually concentrate on tell you why you shouldn’t vote for rival parties and not about good reasons why you should vote for their party.

Periods of election in the UK can range from 1-5 years depending on the post of the candidate is elected to. Mayors only serves for 1 year, councillors serves up to 4 years and MPs’ stand for 5 years before they must stand down or be re-elected.

Now there are more ways to cast a vote than before because of the technology that has evolved. The more traditional way to vote is to go to the polling office this can either be at a church, school or community centre and you have to vote between 7am whilst 10pm for you vote to count. When you go you will go into a voting booth and you will place a cross on a ballot paper next to the name of the candidate that you wish to vote for. You can also vote electronically through the internet or by the post, you can name someone to cast your vote for you and this is called voting by proxy. When you vote on a ballot paper you only get the one vote but say if you make a mistake you can ask for another ballot paper but you have to put the one that you the mistake on in the bin so that it does not get counted by mistake.

There are many voting system methods used in both the UK and worldwide to decide who gets to be a part of the government and these are:

Proportional representation
Single transferable vote
First pass the post
The alternative vote

First pass the vote is a British electoral system that is very clear cut and is well defined, because the candidate with the highest number of votes in the constituency wins it’s as easy as that. In order to vote you must mark a cross next to the name of the candidate that you wish to choose. First-past-the-post is used to elect MPs to the House of Commons and for local elections in England and Wales. The advantages of the FPTP system is that the ballot papers are easy to understand, it provides a close and direct link between the MP and the constituency, it is a cheap and simple way to hold an election, the counting of the ballot papers is fast and accurate, it gives a clear mandate to the party in power, it provides a stable and legitimate political system with usually just two parties dominating so this means a part can pass legislation and tackle the countries problems without having to rely on other parties for support and finally it allows a new or incumbent government to either take over the reins or continue as usual, swiftly and with the minimum of upheaval. However the disadvantages of FPTP is that more people in the constituency can vote against a candidate than vote for them and the individual is still elected, there is a lack of choice of representatives, the government can change constituency boundaries to affect the results of elections and this is called gerrymandering, individuals may cast negative votes for example voting against a candidate they dislike rather than voting for one they like and finally voters in strong party constituencies may feel their vote is wanted.