Representative democracy and referendum stimulus questions

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GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS ESSAY                         HEMALI 12I

Define Representative democracy. (5)

Representative Democracy is where citizens cannot all participate directly in Government and legislative decision making. The people elect a representative to make the decisions for them. Therefore, this delegates that power to their representatives. The UK could be classed as being a representative democracy. In a representative democracy there are political parties that represent different political view. Furthermore, there are associations and pressure groups, such as Mencap, which represent different sections of society, interests and causes. This type of democracy allows for fair and regular elections so that the people’s decisions and belief will always count.

Explain 3 advantages of representative democracy. (10)

An advantage of having a representative democracy is that the representatives chosen have more experience, knowledge and expertise than the rest of the population. Therefore, they are more likely to be able to make a better judgement than us. They may also have more common knowledge in issues concerning the law and economy. In the UK, we choose a representative from each town to put across our decisions to the government. These representatives are known as MP’s.

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        Furthermore, representatives can be made accountable for their decisions. The public would be able to bear this in mind when the next election occurs. This is known as accountability. It could be argued that the Liberal Democratic Leader, Nick Clegg failed to stick to his promise of opposing the university tuition fee rise and therefore is held accountable.

        Lastly, in a direct democracy people may react emotionally to certain issues. This is why having a representative democracy is better, as representatives can be rational and also has a rational approach to problems. For example, some say that going to ...

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