Due to the increasing presidential style of recent prime ministers and the party loyalty of the executive one can consider Parliament’s control of executive power minimal. However, due to the development of independent bodies surrounding Select Committees and the delaying of legislation by the House of Lords it can still be argued to be effective. The government usually has an overall majority. This is due to our voting system of FPTP which gives preference to the two main parties, normally giving them majorities (and increasingly large ones) as opposed to coalitions and minority governments which are produced through other voting systems such as AV in Scotland and Wales. Although we are currently in a coalition the government still has a majority through the combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
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.
This is criticised because the current political party in power have the ability to make their own decisions for the UK before listening to what the people want. This then becomes a problem because they may make changes that the majority of the population will not agree with. However, near to the next election they may decide to listen to people as they want them to vote for them (the current political party in power) during the next election. Secondly, the UK has a hereditary monarchy and a house of lords, both which are not elected. This contradicts a democratic society and is seen as a dictatorship because elections are the cornerstone of a democracy.
Despite of this, Labour decided not to move ahead with the reforms. This shows that first past the post benefits the government in power because the party has majority of the votes in parliament in which makes it difficult for the other party to be heard if they want changes. Furthermore, tactical voting on first past the post encourages voters to vote for a candidate who has a better chance of winning. It prevents the election of a candidate representing the most disliked party. Example for this is in 1997 many Lib Dem and Labour voter tactically voted to get sitting Conservative
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.
How democratic was Britain by 1928? Democracy is a System of government “of the people, by the people, for the people” (Abraham Lincoln). In 1851, Britain was not a very democratic country since the vast majority of its adult population were disenfranchised. However, a number of reforms were passed which gradually helped Britain meet the 7 “hallmarks” of democracy. These include the franchise, a fair voting system, accountability, a choice of party, access to information, a national party system and participation – the right to stand for election to parliament.
Discuss the view that elections in the UK no longer fulfil their purpose The main function for elections is to choose a government and they succeed at this as they have chosen governments at each general election such as choosing a Labour government in the 1997 general election and a Conservative government in the 1979 general election. They have fulfilled their purpose in this aspect as they have chosen governments at each election. However, it can be argued that they are gradually falling behind in this area as in the 2010 general election the outcome was a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, and as the system used in elections is first-past-the-post which is designed to elect a majority government, it didn’t fulfil its purpose at that election, although the coalition has done well in its term in office. Another way in which election fulfil their purpose is holding representatives (MPs) to account, election do this by making the representatives take part in the election every five years. It succeeds in this as if a party is not representing the people in the way they said or are not fulfilling their promises then the people can choose another party who they think can represent them in a better way than the previous party.
They usually have a fairly open membership. Elitist have power concentrated at the upper end of the hierarchy of members, so not all members have the same say within the group. But how does this apply to the UK? Time to see. These pressure groups have less power than most elitist groups due to lack of resources and the lack of leadership that they have.
They include the power of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and chief foreign policy maker, and the power to appoint or dismiss government ministers. These powers are especially important because they are not under the control of Parliament. A second source of prime-ministerial power is his position as leader of the governing party. This effectively means that he is chief policy-maker. This is especially true since the role of parties as policy-making machines has gradually declined.
Proportional Systems mean that all parties can have an influence, and those Parties which are not successful in the general election could be more success in the European Parliament, UKIP gained 12 seats in the European parliament in 2003 but did not gain any in the general election. However it can be argued that PR will not make a strong Government, as non proportional systems can be said to create strong Government as the party will have a robust structure and enough