Tran Luu Truc Anh How Democratic is the UK

AS Politics Homework

The Democracy is the description of a various political systems that are organized on the basis that the government should serve the interests of the people. It falls into numerous categories and comes in many different forms. In UK, the government claim that their political system is democratic, however, how actually democratic is the UK? In order to judge how democratic England is, it is necessary to consider the following issues: the Constitutional arrangement, the Elections, the Parties and Candidate and the Media. Firstly, it is needed to evaluate the Constitutional arrangement in UK. The UK is a parliamentary democracy, the government and representatives are intermingled meaning that that UK does not have separation of powers, meaning that the executive, legislative and judicial courts all work together. However, in fact, the judiciary is largely independent and has defied government over the years. The Parliament has also defeated government over controversial legislation. Moreover, the opposition in Parliament is often quite strong. Another element is the Rule of Law where the government must act within the law and everybody is equal before the law, government does not have arbitrary powers because their powers are defined by law. For example, The Human Rights Act in Labours first term strengthened the rule of law throughout Britains public administration. In fact, the Civil Liberties are protected. The freedoms and civil liberties protected by ECHR and the common law protests and demonstrations are very common, minorities are protected by anti discrimination laws. There are few restrictions on criticizing the government a range of fundamental freedoms are protected, for example, the freedom of speech, religion, association etc. However, there is an element of Britains government system is that there is no written constitution. The government are free to pass any legislation as long as they have the majority in parliament theoretically which could be easily achieved if the party has a large majority of seat. This means there is no safeguard for laws that can be altered or new ones that could be created. This is very undemocratic as the government has too much power. The executive is too powerful as well while the Judiciary lacks of independent. The government is also in possession of other power, for example: the prerogative, uncontrolled powers of the prime minister in areas of defence, security and governmental procedure. The

prime minister is allowed to go to war without consent from the parliament. The decision of Tony Blair to participate in the Iraq war in 2005 is an example. Moreover, the Civil Liberties are not fully protected. As the Britain does not have a written constitution, any of the rules are not entrenched. An example of this is the Human Rights act. Therefore, the government is free to alter these when they please which is undemocratic and the government has too much power that could be abused. Since 2001, the Civil Liberties were lost for security; there is the restriction on protests, restriction on freedom speech as well. The issues of privacy DNA are also become data bases for the CCTV cameras. It could be said that without a codified constitution, the Civil Liberties could be protected fully and effectively. So, even though this aspect of Britains government system is undemocratic, parliament generally prevents government from taking too much power. Secondly, the representation of the Government is very important to be judged. The key feature of democracies is the free and fair elections. In the UK, our elections are typically held within 5 years of the previous election and are free from corruption and violence. They are based on universal suffrage, which is when anybody eligible to vote has their own freedom of choice on which party to vote for without any influence. The elected vote is also kept secret, this process is called the secret ballot. This prevents intimidation from other people and it prevents judgments made on the electoral choice. Also UK, there is an electoral system which is most commonly known as first past the post. This means that to become a member of parliament, all a candidate has to do is gain more votes than any rival in that constituency. The elected element also includes that the House of Commons is elected, the MPs are accountable to the electorate and there are the elections to the EP and local government. The choice of candidates and parties is a crucial element as well. The parties now represented from across the political spectrum. It also includes a range of candidates representing a range of issues and interests. Moreover, the number of women and ethnic minority candidates is increasing. However, there are some problems. For one, the limited choice of parties and candidates. There are four groups of people who are unenfranchised, these people are the homeless, imprisoned convicts, the mentally incapable and the lords. If you arent in any of those categories and you satisfy the requirements established by the law, you are then eligible to vote with the free rights of your own electoral choice. There is also a mass of wasted votes, as some seats are so safe, that there is no point in voting.

Besides, the political parties are small by European standards, their memberships are falling and they are held in low esteem by the public. Lastly, the media plays an particular role in access how democratic is the UK. It is free from the government control and it is often very critical of the government. There is also a range of newspapers and magazines offering different opinions. The British media are broadly representative of a diversity of interests and opinions, but ownership of broadcasting and the press is being concentrated fewer corporate hands. For example, the Communication Act 2003 loosened ownership rules, making it theoretically easier for newspaper owners and non-European media corporations to take over terrestrial TV channels. The media is biased. Television maintains high standards in the reporting of politics to an increasingly uninterested public. So do several broad-sheet newspapers, though political biases can distort their coverage. The tabloid press is however often intensely partisan, sensational and trivial and often exploits majority prejudices against asylum-seekers and, lately, travelers, thus creating space for populist electoral campaigning. The anti-European bias of a majority of newspapers has inhibited public debate on Britains place in the EU. In conclusion, it is clearly seen that although the lack of a codified constitution cause many problems in the constitutional arrangement, the Civil Liberties are not fully protected but the UKs political system still works without a codified constitution and it works better in practice than in theory. The elections and the candidates, the parties have many advantages but also exist some disadvantages for a democratic nation. The media have the same situation, however, in my opinion, in some particular extent, the UK is democratic.