Question 1(c)
The advantages for the wider use of referendums are as follows.
Referendums are a form of direct democracy and this is good as this is the “purest” form of democracy. There is also an expression of popular sovereignty and this is beneficial.
Referendums encourage political participation by influencing what the government does, and this hence encourages voting, campaigning and other levels of political participation. Referendums in addition encourage political education by raising the level of debate. This is good for citzenship as it initially gets people involved. Furthermore they discourage apathy as they are a less adversarial approach to politics.
They act as a check on elective dictatorship by making governments aware that power ultimately lies with the people, where by there is a dispersing of political power. This is a “pluralistical” model of democracy.
There is clarity with referendums as they provide a simple “yes” or “no” answer. For instance for the referendum on the Welsh devolution, the public had to respond to the question of devolution without any complexity, with a simple yes or no reply.
Referendums are a devise for resolving moral issues, ie – those which are non – political such as abortion. These types of referendum are common in Ireland. They can unite divided parties on certain issues which means that if a party finds a particular issue difficult, they can hold a referendum on that issue and this would put pressure on the other party to unite as a result.
Referendums deal with the flaws in the mandate theory. The mandate theory states that when governments have been elected, they have been given permission to carry out all the policies that were in their manifesto. However voters may have made their decisions on the basis of only some of the policies of the party that they voted for. Hence referendums will allow voters to have a direct say on some of the policies that they did not agree with, when initially voting.
They act as a form of entrenchment which means that they give big decisions of validity and certain status, which means that it is difficult for future governments to undo them. This is important because there is no written constitution in Britain which would provide formal entrenchment.
Question 3(a)
A representative democracy is a form of democracy in which citizens rule through representatives, that they elect in regular elections. Citzens ate not continuously directly involved in decision making, as they have given up that responsibility to their elected representatives who are elected every 4-5 years. This contrasts to a direct democracy where there is a continuous participarion of citizens in government.
This type of democracy is practised in the USA and Britain.
Question 3(b)
Three electoral systems that are currently used in the UK are the first-past-the-post, the supplementary vote system and the single transferable system.
The first-past-the-post system is a simple majority system and it is distinctive and particular to Britain. The steps involved in this system are as follows. The country is divided into 659 constituencies and each constituency has one MP or Representative. That member of Parliament is elected on the basis of a vote, which must occur every 5 years by law. However a government may choose to hold an election after 4 years. To become an MP, the candidate must obtain more votes than any other candidate but not necessarily a majority ie – the MP does not need more than 50% of the vote. The party with the largest number of MPs goes to form the government.
The supplementary vote system is a majority system with a one member constituency and this system is used to elect the London Mayor. The way in which it works is as follows. Voters have two preference votes in that they cross their first and second choices on the ballot paper. If a candidate receives more than 50% of first preferences then they are elected. If no candidate gets over 50% then the top two remain in competition and the second preference votes for these two from the eliminated candidates are re-distributed until a winner emerges.
The single transferable system is a proportional system and it gives rise to multi-member constituencies. This system is adopted in Northern Ireland. The manner in which it works is that parties have as many candidate as they like and voters are allowed to rank the candidates in order of preference, seats are allocated on the basis of a “quota system”. This means that candidates do not have to beat their associate candidates, but have to receive a certain quota of votes to get a seat. The quota is calculated mathematically by a certain formula. If a candidate reaches a quota in their first preference, they are elected. However if they get more than the required quota, the extra votes are re-distributed until other candidates reach the quota.
Question 3(c)
The following systems are used in Britain, the first-past-the-post, additional member system, STV and the List system.
The first-past-the-post system is used in the Britain general elections and is a simple plurality system. It is used because it is the system that has always been used and it usually delivers a strong government, clear mandate and avoids coalitions. Furthermore it is easy to comprehend by the public and it also maintains a strong link between the MP and its constituence.
The additional member system is a hybrid system that is used in the devolved assembles in Scotland, Wales and the London assembly. It is a hybrid system and the reason to why it is adopted is because it combines the advantages and disadvantages of majority proportional systems. It is thought that Labour favoured this system in both Scotland and Wales because it would encourage coalition governments and this would make it difficult for nationalist parties such as the SNP and Plaid Cymn from getting a majority and demanding separation.
The STV system is used in the Northern Ireland assembly and it is a proportional system. The reason to why it is currently used in Britain is due to the proportionality, this ensures that all sectors of Northern Ireland are divided, and so society will get representation. The fact that there are multi-member constituencies means that everyone regardless of religion or social background will have a representative that they can identify with. It is also already in use for European elections in Northern Ireland.
The List system is used in the European elections and it is a proportional system. The reason to why it is in use is that it is the system used for European elections in the rest of Europe. Britain needed to come into line with the other member states – Treaty of Rome and because the European parliament doesn’t supply ministers a proportional system was best because it places the emphasis on representation.
Edexcel Politics mock unit 3 corrections
Question 1(a)
The relationship between the votes cast and MPs elected in the 2001 General Election are as follows. The percentage votes received and the number of MPs in the House of Commons is not proportional. This can be denoted by the following from the data.
“ Labour received 41.9% of the vote and gained 413, whereby the Conservatives only received 10.5% less of the vote than Labour but received an unproportional 166 of the seats.”
This shows that the Labour party are over-represented and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are under-represented.
Question 1(b)
Using the data, the following comparisons and contrasts can be elicited from the 1997 and 2001 election results.
In 1997 the percentage turnout at 71.4% was 12% higher than the turnout percentage in 2001 at 59.4%.
The percentage votes cast for each of the three parties was significantly different. Labour’s percentage votes cast in 1997 was 2.5% higher at 44.4% compared to the percentage votes in 2001 at 41.9%. The Liberal Democrats also followed in the same pursuit as Labour in that the percentage votes cast in 1997 was higher than in 2001. The votes cast in 1997 was 17.2% and was 0.2% higher compared to the percentage votes in 2001 at 17%.
However the Conservatives differed in that the percentage votes cast was LOWER in 1997 than 2001. The percentage votes cast in 1997 at 31.4% was 0.3% lower than the percentage votes cast in 2001 at 31.7%.
Also the number of MPs elected did not vastly differ from 1997 and 2001. For Labour the number of MPs elected decreased from 1997 to 2001. Howver for the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives this number increased from 1997 to 2001. For Labour the number of MPs in 1997 at 419 decreased by 6 MPs to 413 MPs in 2001. For the Conservatives the number of MPs in 1997 at 165 increased by 1 to 166 MPs in 2001. Lastly for the Liberal Dems they had 46 MPs in 1997 and this increased by 6 MPs to 52 MPs in 2001.
The percentage of MPs in the House of Commons in 1997 and 2001 pursue the same pattern of number of MPs in that the percentage of MPs in the House of Commons decreased from 1997 to 2001 for Labour but increased for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Labour received 63.6% of MPs in the House of Commons and this decreased by 0.9% to 62.7% in 2001. The Conservatives received 25% of MPs in the House of Commons and this increased by 0.2% to 25.2% in 2001. The Liberal Democrats received 6.9% of MPs in the House of Commons and this increased by 1% to 7.9% in 2001.
These figures show that there is over representation of the Labour party and under representation of the other parties such as the Conservatives.
Question 1(c)
The factors that might explain the fall in turnout in the 2001 elections are as follows.
In the 1997 elections previous to the 2001 elections tactical voting occurred to outride the Conservative Party to ensure that they would not win. The Labour and Lib Dem supporters were fed up with the Conservative party being in power. So within different regions of the country, there are higher public support for all three parties. The Labour party generally gains support in the North where as the Conservatives do so in the South. The Lib Dems have evenly distributed support. Hence in regions where Labour support was low, the Lib Dem voters alongside the Labour ones voted for Labour to out win the Conservative party. And where there was a slightly higher vo