Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Various Ways in Which Participation and Democracy Could Be Strengthened in the Uk
Evaluate the effectiveness of the various ways in which participation and democracy could be strengthened in the UK.
In this essay I will explain the 4 main ways in which the participation in our democracy in the UK can be strengthened. The 4 ways are; Increased use of referendums, compulsory voting, Digital democracy and finally, lowering the voting age. Obviously, all of the listed ideas have advantages and disadvantages and this is what I will explain in this essay.
The first way in which the UK democracy participation can be strengthened is increasing the use of referendums. A referendum is asking a political question to those eligible to vote e.g. the AV (alternative vote) referendum in 2010. An advantage of an increased use in referendums would be that it’s a more direct form of speaking to the public from the governments’ point of view and therefore allows the public to make a decision on an important government matter; this will help the public gain trust in the politicians again as the public feel like they’re decision making. However a disadvantage of an increased use of referendums would be that they are very expensive to carry out and considering that only 42% of eligible voters actually voted in the 2010 AV referendum it would seem to be a waste of money and time if no one will participate.
The second way in which the UK democracy participation can be strengthened is making voting compulsory. Compulsory voting is very self-explanatory and basically means that the government will enforce voting upon those eligible and will only accept the vote if the turnout is 90%+. The main advantage of making voting compulsory is that there would obviously be greater participation and interest in politics. The more people that vote the better because then everyone would have had their say in what way the country should be ran and it will create a fairer result. Also an interest in politics would develop as people would want to know what they were voting for.
In this essay I will explain the 4 main ways in which the participation in our democracy in the UK can be strengthened. The 4 ways are; Increased use of referendums, compulsory voting, Digital democracy and finally, lowering the voting age. Obviously, all of the listed ideas have advantages and disadvantages and this is what I will explain in this essay.
The first way in which the UK democracy participation can be strengthened is increasing the use of referendums. A referendum is asking a political question to those eligible to vote e.g. the AV (alternative vote) referendum in 2010. An advantage of an increased use in referendums would be that it’s a more direct form of speaking to the public from the governments’ point of view and therefore allows the public to make a decision on an important government matter; this will help the public gain trust in the politicians again as the public feel like they’re decision making. However a disadvantage of an increased use of referendums would be that they are very expensive to carry out and considering that only 42% of eligible voters actually voted in the 2010 AV referendum it would seem to be a waste of money and time if no one will participate.
The second way in which the UK democracy participation can be strengthened is making voting compulsory. Compulsory voting is very self-explanatory and basically means that the government will enforce voting upon those eligible and will only accept the vote if the turnout is 90%+. The main advantage of making voting compulsory is that there would obviously be greater participation and interest in politics. The more people that vote the better because then everyone would have had their say in what way the country should be ran and it will create a fairer result. Also an interest in politics would develop as people would want to know what they were voting for.