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An Example Of Representative Democracy In The UK

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Democracy means literally ‘rule by people’. However, it is a broad and imprecise term. Democracy refers to political systems in which the people are involved in decision-making in some way, either directly or indirectly. Direct democracy is when all individuals express their opinion themselves and not through representatives acting on their behalf. An example of direct democracy is a referendum. Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which an individual selects a person (or political party) to act on behalf to exercise political choice. The UK is an example of a representative democracy. There are ongoing debates about how democratic the UK is. The UK has a number of positive democratic features such as; devolved government, independent judiciary, free media, free and fair elections and a wide range of political parties and pressure groups. However the UK has also been criticised for having a …show more content…

This is where powers have been transferred from the UK parliament in London to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast. This gives power to the local people to make laws better suited to that area. For example, the Welsh Assembly made all prescription medicine free as it benefited the poorest in their community. Therefore, the UK is democratic as power is not held in one place, it is distributed amongst official government bodies. However, there is still an underrepresentation of minority viewpoints due to the voting system. The HOuse of Commons is elected by the first-past-the-post system, which produces a mismatch between the votes cast for UK political parties and the seats that each party wins in parliament. For example in the 2015 general election, UKIP gained 12.6% of votes but only one seat in the House of Commons. Therefore, the UK is undemocratic as it does not accurately represent the views of the

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