How democratic is Britain?

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How democratic is Britain?

Democracy is a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them. We say that Britain is a democracy; every four years we elect politicians to represent our views and opinions. But given that the majority of politicians are white, middle age, middle class men how can we say that they are truly representative of the entire population.

Is Britain a true democracy when only 59% of the people vote? The other 40% of the population's voice is not being heard at all. Although all have to right to vote many feel that it is pointless because the parties they want to vote for will never get in power. Their view may not be heard because of the constituency they live in and the fact that our voting system is "first past the post". "The first past the post" system dictates that each constituency, holds an election where they vote for the candidate of their choice. The candidate with the majority of the votes then becomes their representative or MP. But this means that the candidate that comes second does not get any power and this becomes a problem where a there is a stronghold of one of the major parties over an area and if you do not agree with the majority of your constituency then your vote will not be heard and be of no significance which accounts for the lack of voter turn out. An example of this is Bedford, which has a high conservative turn out and because of this anyone wishing to vote for a different party will probably not be heard or your political views represented in parliament. So Britain cannot be a true democracy because not everyone is being represented fairly through our voting system.
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The first past the post system also results in an unfair proportion of seats given in parliament and votes won leaving the victorious party with more power then they should have. For example in 2001 43% of people voted for labour and yet they had 63% of the seats. Lord Hailsham once referred to this system as an "elective dictatorship" in that a powerful government can be created with overwhelming Parliamentary power which can usually push through its required legislation - but with only a minority of the country supporting it.

When we vote in MPs and ...

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