Power and Democracy in the UK.

Power and Democracy Coursework.

Amareen10B

A democracy is a form of government chosen by the people of the country in a free election. That allows differences in society to be resolved fairly and peacefully. They have a choice on how the country is run and this means that they are equal in the rights they have. There are two types of democracy; direct democracy is where all the people decide how the country is governed. An example of this was in Ancient Greek times; where this method was used in Greek city-states, though this is only useful in small communities. You could not use it in the UK where there are over 60 million citizens. The second type is representative democracy (indirect democracy), where people elect politicians to represent their views. It is based on the majority vote where a wide variety of views are openly expressed. An example of this would be Great Britain.

In Great Britain you are eligible to vote over the age of 18 and a British subject. They must be a resident in the constituency (an area that elects an MP to represent them) and registered as an elector on the qualifying date i.e. the proceeding 10th October.

In Great Britain there are three main political parties. Most parties can be put on a political scale from extreme left to extreme right. Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are the main political contenders. Labour who are moderate left wing believe in democratic elections, state involvement, strong trade unions, with welfare as high priority and high taxes. Whilst Conservatives who are moderate right wing believe in democratic elections, private state, low taxes and little state involvement. In the middle of these two groups is the Liberal Democrats who are centre believe in Democratic elections, proportional representation that consists of the number votes in ratio to the number if seats in parliament. They would like certain areas privatised and more power for local government. At the far end of this scale are the Communists at extreme left who want a one party workers’ state. The fascists at extreme right who want no free elections and a strong leadership. General elections, which these parties take part in are every four to five years. They have to campaign to the electorate about their policies and produce a manifesto, a booklet that lists the ideas or policies of a political party, which is to be bought out before an election.

The opposite of a democracy is totalitarianism, which leads to the loss of individual rights. This is when a small group or a single person only rules the country, where only one viewpoint is allowed. The government controls Judges and the law. There are no civil liberties and the mass media has tight restrictions to follow. There are no true free elections. An example of this would be Hitler who persecuted against minority groups.

A pressure group is an organization of people who persuade Parliament to pass or change laws that they believe in. They can also be known as Interest groups. They are groups of people that can often work for change more effectively together than on their own. They can promote changes and they raise money for their organizations through subscriptions and donations. They can lobby MP’s by visiting them in the House of Commons and presenting petitions. Such groups may protect the interests of their members for example trade unions and professions; the law society tries to protect the jobs of its members.

In the UK people have freedom of association that means that you are free to join any political organization or pressure group. But naturally there are some restrictions;

The organisation must not try to seize power from armed forces or the police.
It must not use force or use pressure, bribery to achieve its political aim.
The organisation doesn’t meet to plan a crime.
It must not force people to become its members.

The groups can show the public and the government how strongly they feel by calling a meeting or organising a march and demonstration. It is not unusual for groups to join together if they share a common cause.

A good pressure group campaign consists of a bright, colourful and ...

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The organisation must not try to seize power from armed forces or the police.
It must not use force or use pressure, bribery to achieve its political aim.
The organisation doesn’t meet to plan a crime.
It must not force people to become its members.

A good pressure group campaign consists of a bright, colourful and professional logo, which can attract attention to get more support. A well-structured campaign, which is organised and has considered use of media, public support and letters to the local MP. Other tactics could include lobbying MP’s or using and carrying out various petitions. It also has to be achievable and a good enough campaign and idea to persuade people to join their campaign. Some of the main pressure groups are known worldwide.

WWF or World Wildlife Fund is a Global organisation that stops accelerating destruction of the natural world. Their main concerns are;

Climate Change,
Endangered Seas,
Forests for life,
Living Waters,
Species and
Toxics.

Their panda logo is renowned worldwide. Their slogan is “working together, we can leave our children a living planet.” WWF develop policies and co-ordination of international campaigns whilst supporting offices around the world. Other offices carry out local conservation work, within national boundaries. It now operates in over 100 countries and is supported by nearly 5 million people worldwide.

Some of their principles include; WWF will be a global, independent, multicultural and non-party political, and will use the best available scientific information to build concrete conservation solutions through field-based projects, policy initiatives, capacity-building and education work. They also build partnerships with other organisations, government businesses and local communities to enhance WWF’s effectiveness.

Creating awareness on the environmental issues is a critical part of their mission. They regularly produce films to be documented on T.V. channels. It was founded in 1961 and is one of the world’s largest and most effective independent organisations.

Another organisation is SAS, Surfers Against Sewage. They campaign for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. Using a solution-based argument SAS highlight flaws in current practices, attitudes and legislation, challenging industry, legislators and politicians to end their ‘pump and dump’ policies. In 1990 when the campaign began SAS believed that it was vital not simply to protest but also to provide answers to the problem of sewage pollution. The organisation’s main aim was to find solutions that were both environmentally friendly and cost effective.

They focus of three main areas;

Make the general public aware of the problem and so create a demand for improvements.
Once the government became aware of the nation’s desire for clean, safe beaches, SAS’s next task was to make sure that those in power were provided with the correct information.
Finally, the European legislation that determines the quality of UK beaches and rivers was to be assessed by its effectiveness. To inform the E.U. decision makers of any inadequacies.

The name of the pressure group that I will be evaluating is called ‘Amnesty International United Kingdom.’ It is the largest international voluntary organisation dealing with human rights. They have support of more than one million members and supporters in more than 140 countries and territories. There are also more than 7,500 local Amnesty International groups. It is a democratic movement that is self-governed by eight voluntary members elected by an international council.

It was set up in 1961 by a British lawyer called Peter Benenson who had read about two Portuguese students that had been sentenced for seven years’ imprisonment for raising their glasses to freedom.

Amnesty international is concerned with the international protection of human rights. Amnesty delegates visit counties to meet victims. This enables them to gather facts to generate an action plan. This is portrayed in the leaflet by the list of facts about different cases around the world. To help their campaign they hold public demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, human rights education, and fundraising concerts, targeting local authorities and lobbying intergovernmental organisations.

Amnesty international confronts governments with its findings by issuing detailed reports and by publicising its concerts in leaflets, posters, advertisements, and newsletters and on the Internet. They can prove very successful as many people have access to the Internet, as it is a great source of knowledge and information. The website address is ‘www.joinamnestynow.org.uk’, is displayed in bold on the front of the leaflet. The site is an exact copy of the format of the leaflet; accept it uses java script animation to give hard hitting facts and links to all it’s other sites whilst giving information on how to join and what ‘you’ can do to help and used as another advertising resource to promote the organisation.

Their main focus is to free all prisoners of conscience who are detained for their beliefs or ethnic origin, sex, colour, language etc; that have not used or advocated violence. Amnesty would like to ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; and abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment of the prisoners, as well as ending extra judicial executions and disappearances.

The leaflet is folded; it has six sections including the front and back pages. The whole of the leaflet has been designed with three colours; white, black and a dull green. Even though these colours can be limiting as there are no changes in tone and also they aren’t very eye-catching. It still draws your attention as the graphic design has been carefully structured with different words and fonts.

On the front of the leaflet there is a slogan ‘if you can’t imagine what it’s like to be tortures let’s bring it closer to home.’ This caption can be described as a double entrendre as it is has a hidden meaning. The first impression that it gives you is that the leaflet can inform you about torture that has happened around the world and what the organisation is about. The second meaning is that the torture is already happening at ‘home’, so you don’t have to bring it home; it happens all the time and you can be completely oblivious to it. The front of this caption gives a message in its own way. It is important to pick the correct font when alerting knowledge about any organisations especially on the topics of human rights and extreme issues that Amnesty are involved with. For example if the font were in bubble writing, it would seem less serious and less formal too. The fact that the font has vertical and horizontal lines on the edges of the letters almost shows the striking brutality of the torture that is happening.

When you think of a colour that you would associate with torture you’d probably think of black or red. Amnesty international have used green but because the colour is so murky, depressing and sickening your attention is drawn to it. The slogan has also got many different font sizes with key words like ‘imagine’ and ‘tortured’ in much bigger sizes so it looks like they are coming off the page at you. Also the slogan has ‘you’ in it. This makes it more personal so you could sympathise to it and want to be a part of this worthy organisation.

In the top corner there is a household iron on the table, this section is entirely black and white. The background behind the iron is black and there is a ghostly white glow around the iron. You may think that the light around the iron could symbolise hope. But in this case I think that it shows the darkness enclosing around the iron as if there is no hope.

At the bottom of the leaflet there is a block of green colour with the name, logo and website address of Amnesty International. The logo of the candle with the barbed wire around it is renowned worldwide. Peter Benenson the fonder of Amnesty International was inspired by the Chinese proverb ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse darkness.’ This is symbolised by the logo, which promotes to the world that there is hope and there are people willing to help too.

You open the leaflet onto two sections and your attention is immediately drawn to the right section, which has the same striking writing as the front cover and the use of the household iron as on the font cover. Accept this time the writing reads 'now imagine this was your face.' This is quite a shocking statement, which makes you sit up and pay attention. Again the key words like 'imagine' and 'face' have bigger font sizes. The word 'imagine' has been carried through to show that if this makes you stop and think, can you really imagine what it would be like to be tortured. The iron is the only image shown throughout this leaflet but it is powerful enough to have an affect on the reader by making them aware of a horrifying image before they have even read any informative sections in the leaflet. The iron again looks ghostly as its angle is portrayed to show it coming down at a great force.

On the left side the page is occupied completely by writing. It starts off with a numerical fact to justify a reason for why they are supporting this cause. However this time the font has changed to be less striking and more informative. Along the left hand side you have a column of words in bold type with slightly bigger font sizes reading, "we've", "you", "as", "take", "or", "at", "we", "by", "our", and "join". These words alone can show how Amnesty International are trying to emphasize the harshness of the cases that they help, how you can help them, and how you can help the organization. They are very bold, forceful words that catch the eye. Amnesty International is keen to show real case studies, which are shown in this section. The case study of Nang Mai ad Yassine Simozrag are used in this leaflet, they are particularly disturbing and are just some of the atrocities that Amnesty and the victims have to deal with daily. They give everyday examples of everyday happenings like 'we've all burnt our fingers on a hot iron or pan', and then use it to show the torture that is happening. They also try to sympathise with the reader knowing that this subject is quite horrifying and people may choose to turn a blind eye by tugging on heartstrings. Then the tactics are changed to support for Amnesty by applying pressure to governments and asking for donations and finally wanting you to join by filling in the application form overleaf. At the bottom the font changes to that of the opposite page. It reads 'Please join today.' I have said that this font can show brutality; so maybe in this context it could show a plea or cry for help.

If you fully open the leaflet there is a donation form covering two sections of the leaflet, this can show that it is vitally important to Amnesty International's campaign. There is a positive sentence at the top 'yes, I want to support Amnesty International.' This could infer that the supporters can stand proud and freely say that they can support Amnesty International. After all freedom of speech is a human right, that they campaign about. There is some small print underneath about why amnesty needs donations and a bold part reading 'your support is vital'. The form has a sub standard information box to fill in with your name, address etc. You have a chance to make a regular installment by Direct Debit. Or a set donation of £250, £100, £50, £25 or other. It is interesting that instead of starting with the smaller amount the largest amount of £250 is the first box that you can tick. This could be because they need to get donations to carry out their work. You can also send it by freepost, which is always attractive to a reader and could encourage them to fill the form in. You must make sure that you read the small print at the bottom and keep it, as it is your only form of guarantee.

On the back of the leaflet there is some general information about Amnesty International; including facts on cases, the organisation and what they campaign for. Again they choose to enlarge words like 'you', 'stop torture', 'amnesty' and 'campaigns', to emphasise the most important factors.

Throughout the leaflet the tactic of what 'you' can do to help is used to try and involve the reader. I think that it is a good thing that they use real case studies in their leaflets. There is a lot of information, so even if you have never heard of the group you will be fully informed. It is a good that they do not use pictures of the cases that they have helped as that would be unnecessary as the description of the cases is enough to show you the horror. Also the use of the iron graphic at the start of the leaflet keeps the reader interested so in turn they read on, this is one way in which a pressure group can use propaganda to gain support, by drawing the attention of the reader. The back of the leaflet has a quick and easy summary of campaign issues of Amnesty International, this can be useful for those who may not have enough time to read the whole leaflet but want to get involved.

However the format of the leaflet has been kept the same style with colour, font and text. This can make the leaflet seem flat, bland and a bit tedious by the time you get to the end of the leaflet. Also the donation form is very big, even though it gives you various methods of payments, it does look a bit desperate as if they have focussed the attention more on the donations after giving you examples of case studies. Moreover the leaflet is very formal so it would seem that it would be suitable to an older age group. It also it is written so the language is more formal, this suggests that it would be read by an educated person.

By Amareen Bhambra.10B.

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