Assess The Various Measures, Other Than Electoral Reform, That Have Been Suggested To Improve Democracy In The Uk.

Assess the various measures, other than electoral reform, that have been suggested to improve democracy in the UK.

Several suggestions have been made over many years as to ways to improve democracy in the UK each of these measures has its advantages and disadvantages. In this essay I will try to outline some of these and their corresponding arguments for and against them.

The increased use of referendums in previous years is evidence of politicians trying to improve democracy. Referendums offer a vote to the public on a single issue, which normally has a yes or no answer. Referendums are a form of direct democracy as they give the public a direct vote on a political policy. Referendums are productive as the press and media, which often become involved in referendums, encourage political participation that then often can improve turnout either at the referendum or general elections that in turn improves the legitimacy of the answer the public provides. This is a good way of improving democracy as it gives the people a greater say in political issues. It can also improve the education of the electorate as they learn about new political issues that they might not have known about before the referendum.

With this, however, the extensive use of referendums can lead to long drawn out decision-making, which in many cases is not what government needs. To add to this it is often questionable as to weather the public understand the implications of the vote they have and what will happen if one side succeeds over the other. A good example of this is the Scottish referendum in 2014. Very few people knew what would happen to Scotland if it did vote for independence, especially in terms of the economy, a select few, if any, knew the consequences a separation from the UK would have. Many voters took part due to the influence of media that can sway the public s opinion in a way in which they do not fully understand the consequences of their vote.

The introduction of initiatives has been suggested in the UK as a way to improve democracy. It involves the public needing to get a certain amount of signatures in order to bring about a referendum on a certain issue. It is used in some American states, such as California, and was notably used to try to legalise the drug marijuana. Initiatives allow the public to draw up political agenda, which allow the public to address popular issues, often controversial, which professional politicians may try to avoid. This is useful as without these initiatives many difficult issues may never be brought up in parliament. Initiatives will educate and engage the public in a similar way to referendums. However initiatives could easily become trivial, it could add unnecessary items to the political agenda, which will slow down important issues passing through commons. In addition initiatives would most likely be overused. It is unlikely the public could make a good, well informed judgment on a matter they have not had ample time to research, unlike elected politicians who do so on a daily basis. This would lead to the public just signing or not signing the initiative without being in formed about the matter. These points again are similar to the disadvantages of referendums, they ultimately would take the power out of Westminster s hands which, under the British system of parliamentary sovereignty would not do democracy any favours.

The introduction of compulsory voting has been a suggestion by many people into one way in which democracy could be improved in the UK. Democracy could be undermined by the fact that often votes have a very low turnout, which throws into question the legitimacy of a particular policy or party. These figures have dropped as low as 59.4% in the 2001 general elections. Compulsory voting would end these issues, it would massively increase turnout. It could also be argued that compulsory voting would educate and engage the public in political affairs a some of those being forced to vote may learn about different party policies.

On the other hand many would consider compulsory voting would be extremely difficult to enforce it would have to involve compulsory registration at the poling place, this would be the system most likely used if it were to be introduced. This would mean that many who would not want to vote could spoil their paper or make an uninformed vote that does nothing for the legitimacy of an election. Even in this case there would be almost no way of punishing those who didn t vote. However the main counter argument for the idea of compulsory voting is that citizens have their freedom removed and the point of voting is defeated if citizens vote for a cause they would not support and believe in. This does nothing what so ever to improve democracy, if fact in many cases compulsory voting is more likely to detract from democracy. So therefore I believe this should be discounted as a valid suggestion as to a way to improve democracy.

With the huge improvements in technology of the past years there has been a growing number of suggestions that call to digitalize democracy. Digital democracy could revolutionize politics, if voting could be done from a smart phone then I m sure valid turnout number would hugely increase as there is no inconvenience of having to go to a polling station. It could make political issues have a more frequent connection with the public, engaging and educating them. These points would be particularly significant with younger voters. Technology would certainly engage them and boost turnout numbers.

As with all digital and electronic devices there are many risks associated with them. Opening political participation to technology also opens up risks of hacking, fraud, and the lack of transparency associated with traditional politics. To add to this the whole idea of democracy is that everyone is equal and has one vote for the party of their choice. Would digitalizing democracy be fair on those who could not afford to have access to a digital device or and Internet connection? Personally I don t think it would as those with the technology would have far more information concerning voting and political campaigns, making them far more well informed than those who don t. This really is not hoe democracy should work.

Another suggestion that has been made is to introduce recall elections as a way to improve democracy. Recall elections allow the public to cut short the term of and elected leader through a public vote. It could in some ways be thought of as a referendum on a political leader. Over the past few years recall elections have been considered especially after the 2009 expenses scandal where many called for recall to vote on the MP s who had claimed excess expenses. This could help as it could remove a leader the public was not in favour of. This would arguably improve democracy as it is rule by the people and it improves their ability to choose their leader. There are already two circumstances where a recall can be triggered in the UK if an MP commits a crime and receives a custodial sentence or if commons suspends an MP. In these cases 10% of the registered electorate must then vote on a recall election where they can vote for this MP again or a new one. This idea of recall could be extended to more circumstances or whenever the public choses.

However if MP s or governments become more susceptible to public opinion then it could stop necessary decisions not being made because they are not popular. This would detract from the efficiency of democracy.

To conclude there have been a large number of suggestions to improve democracy in the UK I have outlined some of these in my essay but there are many more. In my opinion some of these could be successful, such as a few more referendums or initiatives. However too many of these would be counter productive. Digital democracy could help to improve democracy by making political information more readily available to the public but digital voting would be unfair and dangerous. In my opinion I think an increased number of circumstances where recall elections could be triggered would be the best way to improve democracy in he UK. However there could be other measures I have not discussed that would improve democracy an equal amount.

Oliver