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
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.
I will be arguing that the achievement of the Attlee Government were remarkable. The sources which I’ll be using show the impact that the Attlee Government had on Britain. From my own knowledge and also the sources, I can show that the achievements of Attlee Government were remarkable as it helped the people of Britain live much better lives. On the contrary it can also show that the achievements weren’t remarkable as it had created many problems for the country. Source 4 is suggesting that since the Attlee government had come into power sorted out many problems in Britain.
In the excerpt of “Why the Polls Were Wrong”, Greenberg Anna, talks about people in different races are cloaked in a giant mantle. Polling is the methology of surveys relies on a set of debatable assumptions about who is most likely turn out and vote on Election Day. Most voters are educated and affluent citizens, who are really motivated. Socio-economis status is associated with both political participation and conservative political preference. To indicate the predictions, the polls are screened tightly for those most likely to vote, adjusted predicted turnout and in some cases “weighted up” most of the times.
The Lords has also become more legitimate since the reforms because it’s influence has increased, the Lords are now looked to by the Commons to see what they think of what the government is doing more and more. They scrutinise the government’s decisions and make suggestions and changes to policy. More and more often the Lords reject or request changes to legislation from the Commons which most of the time the Commons agree with or work on – this highlights how effective and influential the Lords are. c) How successfully does Parliament perform its representative functions in modern Britain?
Part of the system is the introduction of proportional representation that meant parties in the Riechtag would gain seats depending upon the number of votes they got in the most recent election. The consequence of this was that it brought a number of parties together with the help of another key feature of the constitution, the “Bill of Rights”. This meant that parties could express their views, as the “Bill of Rights” was a law that gave people the freedom of speech. This union made representation of many opposing parties very open, which effectively made the Weimar constitution more democratic. 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.
The 1872 secret voting act made voting more confidential. Choice is also a key point in democracy. The current two party system was undemocratic but in 1900 the labour representative committee gave more choice to voters. Access to information was improving because compulsory education was introduced and therefore more people could read the cheap newspapers that were distributed by the growing railway industry. Accountability was a key point in democracy because if an mp did something wrong, they could be voted out by the public.
His main focus should be appealing to the middle-class Americans since they take up a majority of the population and seem to have the most struggles out of all the classes. Obama has appealed to the lower class a great deal and has probably locked in most of their votes which is why it is so necessary to focus on the classes that he knows he can win. Overall, whoever can come up with a stronger economic plan to help recover our nation will end up winning. However, the emotions of the American people are where any candidate should want to win their people over because Americans will follow their heart and if their heart is telling them which president is going to make their lives the best possible then that’s the way they will
In 1909, Herbert Croly was determined to better the United States and did so by writing a book called, “The Promise of American Life”. Croly’s book caught the eye of many politicians and has often been called “…one of the few genuinely important political studies written by an American in the early twentieth century… it has generally been considered an expression of progressivism”(192). During this era the United States experienced constant change due to the Industrial Revolution. As a result, the wealth in the United States was granted to fewer and fewer individuals because big businesses were taking over. Additionally, the economy was not balanced and Herbert Croly devised a plan to regain this balance through federal regulations.
High economic growth and governmental dominance by a single conservative political party marked the period. “The LDP’s characteristics policies were set: namely, anti-communism at home and abroad with an emphasis on economic growth. It worked closely with big business and the bureaucracy, drawing many of its leaders from these groups, while it attracted voters mainly among rural inhabitants, small businesspeople and middle-class white-collar workers” (Tipton, 2008, p. 173). Even though the fall of the 1955 system occurred because of economic failures, corrupt politicians and scandals, the system did bring a lot of good for the Japanese people. In this paper, I argue that most Japanese citizens did pretty well under the 1955 system, primarily due to the economic growth, the rise of the middle class during this period, as well as the right to host the 1964 Summer Olympics.