How democratic is the UK?
A democratic country aims to have an accountable government that serve the best interests of the people it is governing. Democracy falls into numerous categories and comes in many different forms. When power is in the hands of the population as a whole and political decisions are made themselves, this is known as Direct Democracy. A present day example of this in the UK is a referendum. Another type is Representative Democracy. In this case, citizens will elect representatives to make decisions for them and the responsibility is handed over to the representative to make decisions for the country. Liberal democracies are today known as representative democracies and the representatives are accountable to the electorate. The UK is a liberal democracy which ensures that all citizens should be able to influence governmental decisions made. But how democratic is the UK?
A key feature of democracies is free and fair elections. In the UK our elections are typically held within 5 years of the previous election and are free from corruption and violence. The outcomes of the elections are always considered legitimate and the changeover between governments in quick and painless. Also, everyone over the age of 18 is allowed to vote apart from very special circumstances e.g. being in prison. However, the election system used (First Past The Post) if undemocratic. This is due to the problems of the over and under representation whereby the proportion of seats a party gains is not equivalent to the proportion of votes. This system is also blamed for having a ‘two party system’, which means that smaller parties are simply incapable of coming into power. A final argument is that votes don’t have the same ‘value’ depending on the vote’s geographical location. For example in a ‘safe seat’ area your vote will have little or no effect of the outcome whereas in a ‘marginal’ area, your vote can be very influential.
