Student Resources - Chapter two
Chapter Two: Democracy and Participation
SETTING THE SCENE
The subject of this chapter follows from the last one, where the idea of democracy was introduced. It is probably the most important topic in modern politics, since we consider democracy to be the central and most valuable aspect of how Britain is run. This is where the people themselves get involved in the political process, through elections at various levels and then through referendums. But how successfully do we run the democratic process in this country?
KEY TOPICS
- Direct democracy
- Representative or indirect democracy
- Referendums
- The case for and against referendums
- Political participation
- Is political participation in decline?
- Reasons for the decline in electoral turnout
Are any of the terms below unclear to you? If so, perhaps you should look over this chapter or use the searchable glossary to familiarise yourself with these terms.
- Direct Democracy
- Digital Democracy
- Representative or indirect democracy
- Referendum
- Political Participation
- Turnout
- Political Recruitment
- Abstention
Matching Exercise: Chapter Two
| Direct Democracy | Deliberately not voting, as a positive act, having carefully considered the alternatives (as opposed to not voting through apathy). |
| Digital Democracy | a form of direct democracy where the people make political decisions, or are consulted by the government, using the internet |
| Representative or indirect democracy | the system in which the people elect politicians to govern on their behalf |
| Referendum | ta vote on a specific issue (or specific issues) by the electorate as a whole. |
| Political participation | the way in which citizens get involved in the political process. A participatory democracy is one in which citizens are encouraged to take an active part in political life |
| Turnout | the way in which people are drawn into politics itself at an active level, generally by becoming politicians |
| Political Recruitment | the measure of how many people vote (or 'turn out' to vote) in elections. In the UK it is usually expressed as the ratio of voters (those who actually do vote) to electors (those entitled to vote because they are on the electoral register), expressed as a percentage. |
| Abstention | government of the people by the people, immediately and with no intervention from elected politicians |
Further reading for Chapter Two
A. Arblaster, Democracy (Open University Press, 1988): high-level analysis of the various theories of democracy.
D. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2001 (Palgrave, 2002): this and the next book give a detailed breakdown of the election results, their causes and consequences.
D. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2005 (Palgrave, 2006)
G. Evans, ‘Political culture and voting participation’, in P. Dunleavy, A. Gamble, R.
Heffernan and G. Peele, Developments in British Politics 7 (Macmillan, 2003):valuable detailed study of recent trends in turnout.
D. Held, Models of Democracy (Polity, 1996): study of how the concept of democracy has developed since it first appeared in Ancient Greece.
Websites
- www.edemocracy.gov.uk (government site to encourage participation)
- news.bbc.co.uk (BBC site, for election results)
- www.mori.com (MORI, the opinion pollsters)
- www.powerinquiry.org (2006 think-tank report on the state of democracy in the UK)
- www.electoralcommission.org. (Electoral Commission: body established to supervise elections in UK)
Multiple Choice Quiz 2
Click here to access the Multiple Choice Quiz for this Chapter.
