With the rise in the professional politician many prefer to remain loyal in order to gain power and move up in the hierarchy as opposed to become a rebel who remains in the back benchers. This can be seen after the vote on tuition fees and the liberal democrats. Despite the fact that they had campaigned for this cause endlessly only 26 (including a few Conservatives) chose to vote against the bill. Whips play an important part in removing efficiency from Parliament. By having whips who ensure that MPs behave in accordance to the decisions of the executive both Parliaments ability to scrutinise and hold the executive to account is diminished, but also their role as representatives of their individual constituency is also compromised.
However P.R made it difficult for a lot of parties to gain a majority of seats in the Reichstag, which made it harder for one major party to take control of the country. This P.R system made it a coalition government whereby the country is ruled by many parties together having to make joint decisions, therefore made it more difficult to compromise and lead to a weaker government resulting to further elections, making the constitution unstable. Furthermore Universal male suffrage enabled men over the age of 20 to vote in an election. This included the upper, middle and working classes, which made parties competitive. However as there were so many parties only the ones with the most convincing views and issues that effected the general population became major for example, the Communists, Socialists and Democrats, which were aimed for, change and equality.
Therefore this large influence was causing the SPD’s to grow considerably in the Reichstag, consuming the majority of seats in the parliament. Therefore the Reichstag was in left-wing position. This posed a threat to the right-wing position that the government was currently in. Therefore this implies political parties were becoming more influential in the parliament as the Kaiser could not overlook such a dominant party in the Reichstag. However it could be argued that Wilhelm II’s aims to crush socialism in response to Caprivi’s tolerance for Socialism in his years as chancellor disagree with this view as it suggests he is aiming for more of an autocratic state where he holds state control.
During that time social class played a big influence in the way people would vote. People were seen being either middle or working class, depending on the jobs that they had and also the amount of education they had, which proved to make a difference between the social classes and the preferred party of people in those classes. Most people would go for their party that seemed to have their best interests. Same of the working class would vote for the Labour party and the majority of middle class would vote for the Conservatives. An average of 90 per cent of voters supported these two major parties.
However despite all of these changes in attitudes Britain was still primarily ruled and governed by the upper and upper-middle-class aristocracy. At this time the House of Commons was elected by only 4.16% of the population. The lack of response from the government to these social changes only increased the thirst of the public for a fairer democracy ultimately leading to the second reform act of 1867, which increased the size of the electorate to 2.5
In 1974 the Labour government had been divided but after the referendum was passed and the public elected to stay in the EEC it united the Labour government, thus, making the executive a strong one. They believe that all these prose prove that referendums are useful in the UK and should be used more widely in Great Britain However, there are many people who disagree with referendums, saying they shouldn’t be used more widely throughout the UK. Some would argue that the
To What Extent Are Backbench MPs Lobby Fodder? We’re led to believe that the MPs we elect to form Parliament actively participate in the governing of our country. Yet in reality, most of the power lies with the executive and the influence of a backbencher is thus lessened. Are they a loyal party drone? Do they represent the constituents effectively?
There are many arguments that a lot of the laws being passed through the House of Commons don’t have approval of the people. The first reason for this is that government has a majority in the House of Commons. This means that if the government backbenchers and ministers vote with the party they will certainly pass the legislation through. The reason that the ministers are loyal to the party is something called “collective responsibility”. This is when a minister has to publically support the party’s policies and have to vote with the party or they get fired.
Main influences on voting in the UK By Marlon Fraser Social class, historically, has been the defining factor in influencing the pattern of the public vote. Nowadays however other influences ,such as the media, have had a remarkable influence. Has the media taken the forefront over social class as the prime influence over the public vote? Social class was the main factor in deciding which party one voted for and still is for most parts of the older generation. A social class essentially is a group of people who share similar social characteristics with each other.
A government with a minority of seats in the Commons might however lose a vote of No Confidence and would then have to resign - this last happened to the minority Labour government of Callaghan in 1979. Parliament does, however, have important SCRUTINY functions. In other words, the executive (the prime minister and all other ministers) have to explain and justify their policies and actions to parliament. Ministers (by rotation) answer questions by backbenchers during the daily Question Time (both orally and in writing), while the prime minister answers questions every Wednesday. The oral questions are sometimes dominated by loyal backbench government supporters, and it is often suggested that the media provide a more effective form of scrutiny than does parliament.