The Extent to Which the U.K. Political System Becomes More Democratic in Recent Years

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The Extent to Which the U.K. Political System Becomes More Democratic in Recent Years

In recent times the in the UK we have seen the more frequent use of

referendums. These are votes where the electorate votes on a specific

issue such as devolution. It is thought of as a good way of including

elements of direct democracy in our representative system. Although

this method does seem to infringe on the principal of parliamentary

sovereign if in the UK our representatives our supposed to put forward

the views of the electorate it cannot be seen as bad idea.

However some critics of referendums argue that its frequent use in

recent years has actually detracted from the democratic process. They

argue that the questions used can be worded to influence voters, no

matter how carefully they are phrased they will always have an element

of bias to them. Also they argue referendums are expensive and disrupt

the government. Others argue that because referendums are held at a

time of the ruling party’s choice, they have the biggest influence on

the outcome of the vote. If these criticisms are true then obviously

the use of referendums are actually degrading from the democratic

process, however others disagree.

Supporters of referendums argue that there use in our political system

will re-connect voters, after having participated in this process they

will take more notice of real issues, rather than say a party leader’s

personality therefore allowing them to become more involved. Also some

argue that certain decisions such as whether to join the EU

constitution are too important to be settled in parliament and that

the electorate have a right to decide.

Despite criticisms of its use, undoubtedly the use of referendums has

become for frequent in the last 10 years. We have had four in all

since 1997, but are the use of referendums really an asset to our

liberal democracy?

Well in theory most people would agree that they are definitely

representative of the electorate, however after the people have

‘spoken’ it is possible for parliament to re-visit the decision and

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