Is the UK democratic?

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Sarah Hurley

Is the UK democratic?

In order to fully examine this question the question of democracy in itself must be raised; what is democracy and what does it mean for a country to be truly democratic? The word democracy is defined as the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves.

Representative democracy is an indirect form of democracy, that includes competitive elections based on universal suffrage and secret ballots are used to achieve political representation elected representatives who have political authority.

Liberal democracy is a limited government; the state stands back from the free market and imposes only minimal regulation. It does, however, preserve basic civil rights and allows people to vote in regular free and fair elections.

Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which citizens actually take part in making decisions. The concept of direct democracy can be traced back to Athenian Greece where a small group of citizens were given political rights which enabled them to carry decisions.

Representative democracy in the UK boils down to the fact that every four years the electorate is invited to choose a person to represent them in Parliament. The power of the vote in the UK is confined to the constituency, and in normal political circumstances only the vote in marginal constituencies has a chance of changing the running of the country. The Prime Minister is chosen by his or her political party as leader of the party. If the voters give that party more MPs than the others, the leader becomes Prime Minister, and proceeds to appoint a Cabinet.

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Parliament, which is supposed to represent the will of the people, can inhibit, obstruct and criticize the Government's plans, but has negligible power to initiate legislation. The unelected House of Lords can further delay and obstruct legislation, however the House of Lords reform in 1999 means that there are less hereditary Lords and more experienced Lords to minimize this, but in the end, sovereign power rests with the PM, and the degree of power held by the PM is increasing all the time due to the Royal Prerogative among other things.

The UK's First Past the Post (FPTP) ...

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