1.1 - Democracy and Political Participation

1.1 - Democracy and Political Participation

1. Democracy

   • Definition
     • Dispenses power more widely
       • If power is concentrated into a small number of people a dictatorship is likely to form. E.g In Burma, Syria and China.
     • Encourages popular participation
       • Tyranny may be prevented if participation is high
         • In a free democracy the people have the opportunity to become informed and be directly involved with decision making
     • Controls governemnt power
       • Making government accountable to the people, by regular re-election and being a representative the people can feel safe from curruption
     • Protects minorities
       • for a democracy to be effective it must take into account all views, even minority groups.
       • All groups must have access to the political process. Pluralistic democracy
     • Protects freedom
   • Types of democracy
     • Direct democracy
       • A term that describes a political system where the people are directly involved in decision making. E.g Ancient Athens
       • Britain my be becoming a consultive democracy, a limited kind of direct democracy. Possibly because of the increase in referendums.
         • See pages 32 in textbook make referendums resource
         • Rerferendums
     • Representative democracy
       • A system where most decision are made by elected representatives rather than the actual people. Also implies that every voice is heard
     • Liberal democracy
       • Is Britain a liberal democracy?

2. Citizenship

   • Definition
     • Citizenship refers to the idea that members of the political community have certain rights with respect to the political system. Imply's that an individual has a right to live in a particular state and enjoy the benefits from it when obeying the law, give military service in some cases, pay taxes and possibly vote.

3. Participation

   • Examples
     • Being informed about issues
     • Contributing to online forums or petitions
     • Voting in various election
     • Joining a pressure group
     • Joining a political party
     • Standing for politicical office
   • Recent ideas to try and increase political participation
     • Big Society
       • Developed by David Cameron and othe conservatives. Similar to 'active citizenship' suggests that many of the local government functions sould be replaced by local activism. E.g 'free schools' to be run by local community groups not the state.
     • Active citizenship
       • Developed by the Labour Party in the 1990s. This idea implies that it is a duty to be politically active. This involves most example shown and/or belongong to any community groups E.g The Neighbourhood Watch.
     • Political Participation is falling
       • Tournout at elections has been consistently falling since 1979 (except in 2010)
       • Party membership is declining, even in the conservative party where participation is traditionally high,
       • Research shows that the public in general cannot identify with political parties, politians and their policies.
         • Pages 131 in text book
       • However, the number of members of pressure groups is rising.
     • How to increase political participation
       • Voting made compulsory
         • Used in Australia, some say it is an violation on civil rights, can cause people to make uneducated decision
       • Reducing the voting age
         • Proposed by the Scottish Government
       • make voting easier
         • Security problems
       • Electoral reform
         • See elections chapter revision  Page 92 in text  book
         • STV, AMS, AV, D'hont formula ect
       • Increase use of referendums
         • Referendums revision see pages 32-8, 43, 183, 122-3 Make own diagram on referendums and direct democracy
         • Direct democracy