UK as a Strong Liberal Democracy

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UK as a Strong Liberal Democracy

A liberal democracy is a representative system with some of the same

characteristics as a representative democracy as it has free elections

and decisions are made based on popular command. But a representative

democracy can therefore be seen as elitist as a small number of people

govern the majority. Whereas a liberal democracy includes the ideas of

having varied focuses of political and economic power, an open

government which is fair and responsible and an independent judiciary

system. Also in a liberal democracy the government has limited power

as constraints are placed upon the power of ruling government.

The difference between a representative democracy and a liberal

democracy is that a liberal democracy concentrates upon diversity,

choice and individual rights and freedom.

The UK and other Western states are liberal democracies. The UK has a

small governing body representing the people of the nation. This is a

true statement of liberal democracy, as is that the government were

voted into power by the general public on a majority vote. This is a

feature of a liberal democracy. Within the UK there are individual

freedoms also, such as freedom of speech, movement and the right to

protest, basic human rights. Also within this state there is the

freedom of choice where there are more than one party to vote for,

unlike some other countries throughout the world. There are also

pressure groups which influence the decisions the government make.

These all point to the conclusion that the UK is a strong liberal

democracy.

A liberal democracy is supposed to have a government which represents

the majority of the public’s opinion, but in the UK a party could win

with a minority vote, and also in the UK seats in parliament are not

proportional to the votes won in an election. This is because the

government in power benefits from this being the case so a

proportional system is never introduced. A liberal democratic

government is supposed to make decisions based on reason and the views

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