Participation and Democracy

Participation and Democracy

1. Democracy in the UK

   • Direct Democracy
     • Referendums
       • Brexit (2016)
       • Scottish Independence (2014)
       • Indyref2 currently making its way through the SCOTUK
     • Recall of MPs Act of 2015
       • Arguably form of direct democracy - Ian Paisley recalled
   • Representative Democracy
     • Pluralist democracy - widespread acceptance of different beliefs and tolerance etc
   • The overall assessment of democracy in the UK is that we are remarkably successful even though many critics believe there to be a 'democratic deficit'
   • Think about some of the benefits and drawbacks of ideals like: peaceful transferal of power, free elections, fair elections, widespread participation, expression, speech, association, redress and fair judicial process are key - role of the House of Lords

2. The Franchise and Participation

   • The Franchise
     • Representation of the People Act of 1832 (First Reform Act)
     • Prisoners - Hirst v.UK (2005) ECtHR remains unimplemented
     • 16 year olds - Scottish and Welsh elections and 15 year olds in Conservative Party elections
     • Suffrage
   • Issues over whether the age should be lowered, Conservatives naturally oppose based on age-party votes and suffrage has been extended by Parliament consistently through the ROTPAs but there's still controversy on the right of prisoners to vote - unpopular with public
   • Political Participation
     • Methods for participation
       • Online participation - Twitter and Parliament website dubbed 'Clicktivism'
       • Joining a party or pressure group
       • Clicktivism v Slacktivism
     • The participation crisis
       • Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) saw a low turnout of 8% and high turnout of 35% for such important civilian oversight it may be people just don't believe they're consequential elections
       • AV Referendum (2011) saw 42% participation
       • EU Referendum (2016) saw record 72.2% turnout so arguably not true to suggest but rather people need to be engaged, riled up and have an opinion - affects all and future generations and family
       • Scottish Independence Referendum saw 75% turnout in 2014
   • Lowered participation is seen especially in young people but can be blamed on voter apathy due to increasingly common elections and referendums through 2016-9 and many are disenfranchised with government
   • But also with the Scottish Referendum having a 75% turnout and Scottish elections having generally consistent levels of participation with 16 years allowed to vote should this be the case across the UK? Are they trusted enough or would they justvote with whoever their parent figures are. 18 for cigarettes but 16 for sex

3. Role of Pressure Groups

   • Methods
     • Lobbying
       • Groups like the BMA, Law Society and Age UK for pensioners
       • Effectiveness based on insider status?
     • Public campaigns
       • Large scale demonstrations like the Law Society supporting Barristers Strikes
     • Donations to political parties
       • Trade Unions and the Labour Party
     • Civil disobedience
       • Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain
       • Risks disenfranchising people to their cause
     • Social media
       • Mental Health campaigns include the Sussexes and celebrity support
     • Legal action
       • Judicial review - Good Law Project v. DfHSC and PM on PPE and HRA used to protect minority interests
   • Think Tanks are also used to influence elected representatives and collect data they find useful
     • Some are neutral like Demos (socio-political issues) and some have ideological interests like Liberty (rights and liberties)
   • The role of pressure groups is generally dependent on their insider or outsider status as without this government rarely takes notice and they instead risk disenfranchising the public to their cause as seen with Extinction Rebellion which saw 49% of the public found their mission to be counterproductive just weeks into their demonstrations and that government did not change course
   • This therefore begs the question on whether we truly are a genuine representative democracy if the role of pressure groups is minimised or enhanced because of their relationship with the government and if it's an effective form of participation

4. Rights in the UK

   • Collective v Individual Rights
     • Individual rights
       • Right to privacy
       • Expression and Speech are protected
       • Right to strike and withdraw labour
     • Collective Rights
       • Right of a community to be safe - like from terrorism
       • Freedom of movement
       • Expectation of quality services they pay for
     • Common law, conventions, statutes along with authoratative works
   • There is a clear link here to the constitution and how we have an uncodified and unentranched one and therefore leaves our rights to the whim of parliament and can repeal or alter them without a direct say of the electorate - like Raab and the HRA
   • Role of pressure groups like the Law Society and their influence in Gove's decision to remove books from prisons
     • But groups like Liberty and others objected to Raab's plan to repeal the HRA but didn't change government course
     • JUSTICE, Law Society, Amnesty International and Liberty are all important pressure groups for rights protection

5. Exam Questions

   • To what extent are rights in the UK truly protected?
   • To what extent is the UK is a genuine representative/pluralist democracy?
   • To what extent is the UK is a direct democracy rather than a representative democracy?
   • To what extent does the UK suffer from a participation crisis?
   • To what extent does the UK protect the franchise of all groups?