The ways in which Britain has become more democratic -elections, reforms and devolution

by hughdepasquale (student)

The House of Lords Act 1999 - Dominic Price

The House of Lords is a flawed institution with no democratic mandate. The House of Lords Act 1999 was an of the that was given on 11 November 1999.

The House of Lords was criticized because there is no electoral system which decides its members, some inherit the position, some are awarded it by the Prime Minister. Although The House of Lords Act didn’t introduce an electoral system to The House of Lords, it the Act the in other ways. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred; the Act removed such a right. The Act decreased the membership of the House from 1,330 (October 1999) to 669 (March 2000). Therefore this means that the Lords who had inherited their membership were out; ridding the Chamber of unworthy members, making the Chamber a bit more democratic. The next step would be to introduce some variation of an electoral system.

Scottish devolution referendum of 1997 - Patrick Tucker

The UK’ incorporation of referendums in its political system is testimony to its edge toward a more democratic society. The Scottish devolution referendum of 1997 is an example of a major referendum in UK history; in this act it was proposed that Scotland be given an assembly with limited legislative powers. The referendum was, however, seen as undemocratic because the “40% rule” came into effect; this rule meant that even though an overall majority voted in favour of the referendum, because 40% of the Scottish electorate did not vote in favour of the referendum, it was not passed—this limited the effectiveness of how democratic the referendum was, because despite a majority in the UK the act was not passed as the Scottish electorate did not hold a majority.

British General Election, May 2010 - Declan McClean

The General Election of May 2010 lead to the first coalition government since 1945, and ushered in a new form of representation, a coalition government does not usually have a clear mandate, as it is a synergy of two different political ideals, in this case, Conservative and Liberal Democrat, therefore, consensus has to be reached about which policies to pursue, this in turn leads to a greater deal of cooperation and thus proportional representation. In contrast, usually in coalition governments the larger party absorbs the smaller for their term in ...