Evaluate the various ways in which participation and democracy can be strengthened in the UK?
by
matto100 (student)
Evaluate the effectiveness of the various ways in which participation and democracy could be strengthened in the UK?
In recent years there has been concern that the UK is suffering from a participation crisis, turnout over the past 3 general elections has been significantly lower than the average between 1945 and 1997. This means there is a lack of active political engagement within communities, which is a dangerous prospect as if the Uk is to sustain being a representative democracy, then it needs the participation of the people, so that the government can make justifiable decisions within society which are fair and as decisive. Otherwise there is the threat of turning to a more autocratic government.
Due to the decline in political participation new ideas are being incorporated into society to get citizens more actively engaged in politics. For example the use of electronic technology to aid in increasing levels of participation, for example using e-petitions and electronic voting makes things more accessible to a wider audience so therefore the scope of participation can be more expansive. The internet is also an opportunity to involve people in politics, the widespread access of blogs, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can help to raise awareness of political issues so could increase participation. An example of electronic working effectively could be in Estonia, where the turnout is not much different from that in Britain, electronic voting has been introduced and it has shown that a wider educated audience have been attracted to this new voting system, it could have contributed to the higher than average votes in the 2007 Estonian election. to However this idea cannot be a largely substantial way to increase participation, as to some individuals who may not be so politically aware could give a frivolous vote whereas it being a life changing decision.
