To decide whether I think there should be an increase in the use of Direct Democracy in the UK, I will need to assess the arguments in favour; ‘Allows people to have more of an effect on Politics, and is therefore more legitimate’, ‘Public will be more informed about current political issues’, and, ‘Increased public participation may help combat current disillusionment with the Government, and negative opinion of MP’s in general’, and decide whether these carry enough merit to consider doing so.
Probably the largest problem any voting system faces;, is non-legitimacy of results due to low voter turnout. Whilst it is true if Direct Democracy in the UK increased, more people may be encouraged to vote, there were problems evident in the last nationwide (UK) referendum to take place, in 1975 to do with the UK’s position on the European community issue, that meant the legitimacy of referendum results, like election results, may suffer because of low voter turnout. In this particular referendum, 67.2% of voters said we should remain part of the European community; however, as the voter turn out for this referendum was only 64.5% of those eligible, only 43.3% of the population actually voted ‘Yes’. This may therefore render redundant the argument that increased Direct Democracy in the UK, would allow people to have more of an opportunity to directly effect decisions normally made on their behalf. People cannot have more of an effect, if they are not turning out to vote.
Other issues are to do with the suitability of the decisions made, as by increasing Direct Democracy in the UK we would need to have a more informed populace. The argument that greater use of Direct Democracy would result in a more informed citizenry, and therefore a more efficiently run country, can be called into question, mainly because these citizens may not want the responsibility of making these decisions. By electing representatives in General elections, they are trusting that these people who have the education necessary to use their vote wisely, will vote on their behalf, and in their interests. It is true that by allowing UK citizens to take more of an active role in politics, interest may increase, and therefore so would knowledge of the subject. (Voter turnout may also increase because of this increased interest.) However, if the public are not well informed, but are given the power to affect the outcome of important decisions, there may be serious consequences as a result.
There is also the issue of public opinion of the Government; currently the populace has become disillusioned by the Government; they feel that they are ignored, unrepresented, and that the elected Government, the way the system currently operates, is unfair. The MP’s themselves also have a bad reputation at the moment, after the expenses scandals that took place over summer; whereby MP’s were using public funds for their personal use. This has had a profound impact at a time where the Country is in recession and the Government is imposing large spending cuts on the people because of Britain’s huge debt. By increasing Direct Democracy public opinion may change; every vote would count in referendum style voting situations, and the people can have more of an impact on the way the UK is run. But whilst this may go someway towards improving the Governments public image, the problems remain that it is difficult to organise Referendums, and doing so on a regular basis will cost a lot of time and money. The Government can also make it difficult for a referendum to actually be passed, so it is arguable whether the people in reality would have more power than previously, or whether it would be an illusion to allow the Government to save face.
In conclusion, I think that whilst the theory behind a greater use of Direct Democracy sounds good; ‘People can make their own decisions, be more informed, take a greater role in politics’ etc; putting it into practice in a fair manner would be pretty much impossible. However, the current system of an electing a representative to vote on the behalf of an area of the populace has also proven to be flawed, and so whilst not the best solution, a country run by Direct Democracy may be a better alternative to the current situation. Though of course, it would be extremely difficult and expensive to implement, and is therefore never likely to actually happen.
