One of the ways direct democracy is implemented in the UK is through the use of referendums. A referendum is called by the government to allow people to vote directly on an issue. One example of a recent referendum was the 2010 referendum to decide whether the UK should switch from the First past the post vote system to the AV system. The result was a 67.9% majority against changing the system. This shows hope the people can directly influence the way in which their democracy works and so is hence very democratic.
The government will make their own decision whether other opposition parties disagree with them; the government in power still make their own decision. Example of this is, when after Labour victory in 1997, the New Labour administration established an Independent Commission on Electoral Reform under Lord Jenkins. Lord Jenkins’ recommendation that AV should be introduced for UK general elections after a disappointed that many fellows of Liberal Democrats had. Liberal Democrats felt that STV might be more effective in addressing the flaws in the current FPTP system. Despite of this, Labour decided not to move ahead with the reforms.
Referenda are a general vote put upon the electorate on a single political issue and are a direct form of democracy; referenda usually allow the voters to choose between yes/no option or two alternatives. The UK uses a form of representative democracy, the principles of which elected officials represent a group of people to make a decision on their behalf (Burkean model of representation). Referendums have been sparsely used in the UK as there is no established tradition of them and some political leaders argued strongly against the use of referendums. Clement Attlee (labour party leader from 1935-55 and prime minister from 1945-51) felt that “referendums are just not British” because he stressed they were too often used by dictatorships. The delegate model of representation poses a threat to the form of representative democracy used on the UK as the public will have more say on issues which undermines the Burkean model.
In a referendum, voters, not the legislature, decide whether a given bill or constitutional amendment should be passed (Document 3). Recall is a form of petition used by voters to force elected officials out of office (Document 3). All of these reforms made during the Progressive movement granted citizens greater participation in state
Arguments supporting the idea that the second chamber should be fully elected include the idea that it would be more democratic to have an elected legislature which is relevant as the United Kingdom is a democratic country. In 1999, when Tony Blair was in office- the House of Lords act was pass which removed all but 92 hereditary peers from sitting and voting in the House of Lords. This was mainly triggered by the fact that when Thatcher wanted to pass the poll tax, the Lords were threating to not pass the bill, so the government decided to persuade hereditary peers who would not normally vote to vote for the poll tax which caused the legislation to pass. When Gordon Brown was in power from 2007-2010, he was unable to complete the reform of the upper house as he did not have the time due to the economic crisis, however- when the coalition came to office in 2010, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were both committed to reforming the second chamber by having it completely elected by using proportional representation. There have Proportional representation would make the second chamber more representative as it would allow smaller parties to have a
Therefore the parliament lacks the legitimate right to ignore the mandate and tends to accept the government’s right to govern. However, despite large majorities, the House of Commons has the authority to dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence. For example, the 1979 vote of no confidence removed Prime Minister James Callaghan from office after a sustained period of industrial unrest and economic problems. This suggests that although government may be powerful, if it tests the limits and becomes autocratic or inefficient, parliament can take measures to
Maya Austell March 6, 2012 American History II Book review on 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism The election of 1912 was a rare four-way contest. All four candidates ultimately had the same goals and similar qualities of Progressivism but quite different ways of moving towards it. Brett Flehinger states “Although Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Debs, and others disagreed fundamentally on a number of issues, their debates focused on a central question: How should American society respond to the swift and sweeping social and political changes brought on by the development of this new corporate economy.” (pg. 21) Before President Theodore Roosevelt left office, he picked William Howard Taft to be his successor and helped get him elected. William Howard Taft was nominated by the support of Republicans and the conservative wing.
Each branch “checks” the power of the other branches to make sure that the power is balanced between them. When a president vetos a bill it is considered apart of checks and balances historically Andrew Jackson vetoed around twenty bills, he was the first to do this. e.) The idea of The Electoral College. In the early days of America they had a debate on how the president should be elected. One idea was to have him selected by the congress, this idea was thrown out because people thought that it would be used to serve the congresses purpose.
This was to help keep someone from making the democracy into a monarchy for one example. Another would be that the Articles of Confederation allowed for a strong legislature for the states, but the executive branch was basically nonexistent or was without enough power to override laws that would be against basic human rights.
Abolishing the Electoral College Here in the United States we have two primary voting systems, which consist of the popular vote and the Electoral College. The Popular vote is just that, popularity. The most desired and popular candidate is awarded the majority of votes cast by the citizens of the United States. The Electoral College, on the other hand does not consist on the votes directly cast by citizens but by a group of people elected by the citizens. This group of officials also known as “presidential electors” makes up the Electoral College.