Edexcel Government & Politics - Unit 1 06/06/16

"Consider the extent to which the use of televised debates at the 2010 GE enhanced political participation''

Some of these questions are ridiculous, I cant think of one way in which it enhanced participation..

The televised debates definitely sparked interest from the public (especially about raising the awareness of the Liberal Democrats and the fact there was a third choice), but I think it is highly unlikely you'd get a 25 mark question on that alone. Just make sure you can integrate it into a more general question about improving the nature of democracy.

That said, they have been known to focus on individual methods of improving democracy such as referendums.

Reply 901

Pato1

13

25 marker on how and why democracy should be enhanced:

- current system of democracy suffers from defects due to the electoral system which is used; FPTP. (explain it's problems)
> talk about reforming it to a PR voting system and why it's more democratic.

- Another reform to the representative model is reforming the recall system we have in place.
> reforming it like how it is in the USA where you can recall if you think your mp is not performing well, whereas at the moment you can only recall if your mp has been sentenced to a prison sentence and you need 10% of constituents to sign the petition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_of_MPs_Act_2015

- Reforming the structures and institutes could be needed
> reforming HoL by electing the lords would more democratic as we can put them under account, currently it's not democratic.

- another way is the increased use of methods associated to direct democracy.
> more referenda and initiatives introduced + why

- greater involvement of citizens in between elections would help
> citizen juries or focus groups/ adding digital democracy further to our government

Reply 902

BirdIsWord

17

Original post by JamesGibson

The televised debates definitely sparked interest from the public (especially about raising the awareness of the Liberal Democrats and the fact there was a third choice), but I think it is highly unlikely you'd get a 25 mark question on that alone. Just make sure you can integrate it into a more general question about improving the nature of democracy.

That said, they have been known to focus on individual methods of improving democracy such as referendums.

Thanks man, forgot to say it was a 10 Marker not 25.

Reply 903

UKStudent17

4

1) Reforming the Westminster electoral system to a system other than FPTP.
Can someone give a counter to this one? I was thinking that other systems could be more disproportionate, therefore undemocratic, such as AV. SV also doesn't require a candidate to have a majority of votes, just one more than the rival candidate if it goes to second preferences.

2) Reforming the House of Lords to make it an elected second chamber.
Counter: Elected chamber subsequently leads to more voting which could result in voter apathy worsening.

3) Extending devolution to England (West Lothian Question; establishing an English Parliament) and giving more powers to the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies to the same level as Scotland.
Can somebody give a counter to this? I'm not 100% sure myself.

4) Lowering the voting age to 16.
Counter: Doesn't guarantee turnout to increase; youth tends to avoid voting anyway.

5) Introducing compulsory voting. (Similar to Australia; turnout never below 90%)
Counter: Can be considered undemocratic in its own right by limiting the freedoms of the individual.

6) Increased use of referendums. (Like the Scottish Referendum [2014] and the upcoming EU Referendum [2016])
Counter: (Similar to HoL reform) Can worsen voter apathy because of more frequent elections/voting. (E.g. 2011 AV Referendum: 42% turnout)

Reply 904

mollyadtr

15

Original post by alevelpain

Yeah I agree with you :tongue:

it's a really tough question :/ maybe chequebook membership of pressure groups shows it isn't going up?

Ooooo I like that for the evaluation! I didn't think of that 😅

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Reply 905

popcornjpg

14

finished all my plans for democracy ^^

2 / 3 more to go for elections.

not long now guys, keep up the revision!

Reply 906

mollyadtr

15

Original post by XiuXiu

Can somebody please help me understand the difference between SV and AV electoral systems? This is making me feel very stupid, they just seem to be the same, apart from SV is used to elect the London mayor and AV isn't used for anything

As far as I know av is used for labour leadership elections
Sv and AV are both majoritarian systems though
Sv you get two votes but with AV it's like stv where they number their preferences yeah? It just doesn't result in a multi member constituency
Candidates are only elected once they have received a majority unlike sv that doesn't always guarantee a majority win
Hopefully this makes it a bit clearer for you?😌

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Reply 907

mollyadtr

15

Original post by popcornjpg

finished all my plans for democracy ^^

2 / 3 more to go for elections.

not long now guys, keep up the revision!

Don't work too late into the night and wear yourself out, take plenty of breaks and get a good nights rest so your brain doesn't implode 😅

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Reply 908

popcornjpg

14

Original post by mollyadtr

Don't work too late into the night and wear yourself out, take plenty of breaks and get a good nights rest so your brain doesn't implode 😅

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Planning to revise until 10.30 and bed :P

Good point though - I don't recommend that anyone here revises through the night. Better a nights sleep than to be half-awake in the exam

Reply 909

XiuXiu

10

Original post by mollyadtr

Sv you get two votes but with AV it's like stv where they number their preferences yeah? It just doesn't result in a multi member constituency

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Ah, that makes sense! Thanks, I just got confused with all the differing amounts of multiple votes.

Reply 910

alevelpain

2

How does the party list work? I understand that the country is divided in to 12 multi-member constituencies. Within those constituencies, does a party put forward people who will represent it, and then the vote for the entire multi-member constituency is received and then it is divided using the d'Hont method?

Reply 911

xxvine

OP

19

Original post by mollyadtr

Don't work too late into the night and wear yourself out, take plenty of breaks and get a good nights rest so your brain doesn't implode 😅

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So true
You know there is free media
What would you expand on that to prove that the uk is democratic

Reply 912

Pato1

13

n my opinion, this is because a democracy thrives on the free flow of information. The people need to know as much as they can about their government and the issues that face their society. If they do not have this information, they cannot truly exercise control over the government in the way that democracy demands.At the heart of democracy is the idea that the people control their government. In order to do this, they have to know what problems exist in their society and they have to know what is going on in the government. If they do not know what problems exist, they cannot push the government to fix the problems (imagine if we didn't know what the deficit was). If they do not know what is going on in government, they could not punish governmental officials who act in ways they do not like. Both of these would be terrible for democracy.So a free press is necessary to democracy because it allows the people to find out the things they need to know in order to control the government the way they are supposed to.

Reply 913

tom476zf

9

Original post by Pato1

25 marker on how and why democracy should be enhanced:

- current system of democracy suffers from defects due to the electoral system which is used; FPTP. (explain it's problems)
> talk about reforming it to a PR voting system and why it's more democratic.

- Another reform to the representative model is reforming the recall system we have in place.
> reforming it like how it is in the USA where you can recall if you think your mp is not performing well, whereas at the moment you can only recall if your mp has been sentenced to a prison sentence and you need 10% of constituents to sign the petition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_of_MPs_Act_2015

- Reforming the structures and institutes could be needed
> reforming HoL by electing the lords would more democratic as we can put them under account, currently it's not democratic.

- another way is the increased use of methods associated to direct democracy.
> more referenda and initiatives introduced + why

- greater involvement of citizens in between elections would help
> citizen juries or focus groups/ adding digital democracy further to our government

surely you need Ao3 counter points aswell? are you sure this is a 25?

Reply 914

username2444493

1

Ive been going through the all the past papers and this one question has be confused,
Assess the arguments in favour of the greater use of directdemocracy in the UK.
What would i write for it?