To what extent has the UK political system become more democratic in recent years

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To what extent has the UK political system become more democratic in recent years

In recent times the in the UK we have seen the more frequent use of referendums. These are votes where the electorate votes on a specific issue such as devolution. It is thought of as a good way of including elements of direct democracy in our representative system. Although this method does seem to infringe on the principal of parliamentary sovereign if in the UK our representatives our supposed to put forward the views of the electorate it cannot be seen as bad idea.

   However some critics of referendums argue that its frequent use in recent years has actually detracted from the democratic process. They argue that the questions used can be worded to influence voters, no matter how carefully they are phrased they will always have an element of bias to them. Also they argue referendums are expensive and disrupt the government. Others argue that because referendums are held at a time of the ruling party’s choice, they have the biggest influence on the outcome of the vote. If these criticisms are true then obviously the use of referendums are actually degrading from the democratic process, however others disagree.

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   Supporters of referendums argue that there use in our political system will re-connect voters, after having participated in this process they will take more notice of real issues, rather than say a party leader’s personality therefore allowing them to become more involved. Also some argue that certain decisions such as whether to join the EU constitution are too important to be settled in parliament and that the electorate have a right to decide.

   Despite criticisms of its use, undoubtedly the use of referendums has become for frequent in the last 10 years. We have had four in all ...

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2 Stars - The scope of this answer is somewhat limited - most of it appeared to be an essay about referendums. This essay should have considered a wider range of issues - what about devolution and directly elected mayors for example? Also, there was little use of concrete examples - why talk generally about referendums when you could give direct examples of the real results of them?