How Far Do We In Britain Live In A Democracy Essays - Democracy

How Far Do We In Britain Live In A Democracy? The definition of democracy is rule by the people, or the power of the people. The demos comes from the ancient Greek, it is the people and kratos is to rule. Democracy today has come to mean the decisions arrived by the majority (or a simple majority), the right of every citizen to vote and hold office, and the duty of all citizens to participate actively in the system. So in an undefined sense, political power is ultimately in the hands of the whole adult population, and no smaller group has the right to rule. But only when democracy is qualified by other words, such as liberal, representative and direct, can it take on a more useful meaning. So to understand democracy, we must look at these different faces of it. Liberal democracy is most commonly seen in industrialised western countries. It has four main ideas: ? That the government should be limited (the individual should enjoy some protection from arbitrary government), and its purpose should be the removal of obstacles to individual well-being; ? The market should have a paramount role with minimum state interference; ? The state should play the role of night-watchman; the franchise should be steadily extended to encompass men with property to members of the working class. The overall idea is that there should be a limited government, the individual should enjoy some protection from arbitrary government and that the government should be in some way tied to the will of the people. The central existence of liberal democracy is the existence of civil liberties the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the freedom to dissent. In Britain these civil liberties and guaranteed by the rule of law and the separation of powers. The rule of law guarantees us equality before the law. And the separation of power maintains a separate executive and jury, so that laws enforceable in courts can curtail the powers of rulers. But a criticism of liberal democracy is that our rights and freedoms are not all that free. So although we, as British citizens have freedom from arbitrary arrest, we can be arrested on suspicion; although we have freedom of expression, we are not free of libel; although we have the right to be free from surveillance without due process, it can be given by a judge, and although we have the right to the freedom of movement, we are still controlled by passports. It has been thought that liberal democracy has come to embody the limited claim that the working class has the right to compete with the established state institutions and society. This is because no one voice is louder than another, liberal democracies are representative, political authority is based on popular consent, the wishes of the masses. Today liberal democracy has become very closely linked with representative democracies. The idea for representative democracies, is that the citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf. This works in Britain by voters electing Members of Parliament, the person that they think will best represent their views. These MPs meet in an assembly, the House of Commons, which is responsible for making laws. Every MP has the right to speak and vote on proposed laws, either for or against. Proposals become law if a majority of MPs vote in favour of tem. By voting for a representative, the voting citizen is handing over the responsibility for decision making to someone else. Although voters hand over the responsibility for decision making to their elected representatives, they still have a further part to play in the system. There is accountability; the representatives are accountable to the electorate, so the electorate in someway exercises power over its representative. For, unless the representative acts in a way that meets the approval of their electorate, they will not be reselected and so will lose their seat. This fear will affect their behaviour in favour of the electorate, but the electorate has had to hand over its personal power and the personal contribution to the formation of legislation. The role of the representative is therefore very important. Some representatives argue that their duty is only