...ASSESSMENT 2 Understanding the Democratic Election process in the UK Introduction: What is UK Election? A formal and organized choice by vote of a person for a political office or other position in UK is called Election. According to fixed term parliament act on 15th September, 2011 the next election will be held on 7th of May 2015.The act provides for general elections to be held on the first Thursday in May every five years. There are two provisions that trigger an election other than at five year intervals. A motion of no confidence is passed in Her Majesty's Government by a simple majority and 14 days elapses without the House passing a confidence motion in any new Government formed A motion for a general election is agreed by two thirds of the total number of seats in the Commons including vacant seats (currently 434 out of 650) Previous to this act, the duration of a Parliament was set at five years, although many were dissolved before that, at the request of the Prime Minister to the Queen. ●text: http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/ Importance of Election Education: Instructors, counsellors and others who work with young people play an important role in Educating new and future voters about the electoral process. For this reason it is important that those who work with youth do what they can to educate youth about the democratic process. In the 2005 British Columbia general election, only 35% of eligible voters aged 18-24 voted...
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... | |Start of Unit Date |24 September 2012 | |Completion of Unit Date | | | |Unit Tutor: James McQueen | |Group / Course |Diploma in public services | Learning Outcomes • Know the different levels of government I the UK • Understand the democratic election process for each level of government in the UK • Understand the impact of UK government policies on the public services • Be able to demonstrate how government policies are developed Unit Criteria Passed |Pass |1 |2 |3 | | | | | | |Tutor |James McQueen | | | | | |Internal Verifier | ...
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...& Title(s): Unit 1: Government, Policies and Public Services | |Hand out: 10/10/14 |Submission: 5/12/14 | |Criteria reference |To achieve the criteria the evidence must show that the learner is able to: | |Task no. | |UNIT: 1 | | | |P1 |Outline the responsibilities of the different levels of government in the UK. | |1 | |P2 |Describe the role of government departments in relation to public services including their | |1...
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...role of parliament. Secondly, it will evaluate drawbacks and benefits of election systems and the devolution. Thirdly, it will illustrate the roles of political parties and low results of participation in elections. Possibilities for and trends of becoming participated in the political process by people is political participation. Generally, political participation contains a number of points such as awareness of current issues, supporting online forums, taking part in all kinds of elections, standing for political office, joining and becoming active in pressure group and political party and participating in physical and e-petitions (McNaughton: 2012). Vlassopoulos (2009:29) mentions that direct popular participation in making decisions is the vital aspect in definition of democracy. One of the main functions of Parliament is representation. This means that elected MPs should represent and defend the interests of their voters. However, in real life citizens have no significant impact on the activities of legislators. Another important function is that it is the origin of political authority and exercising of power is impossible without Parliament’s sanction. Furthermore, the UK government membership depends on it: the members have to be from the House of Lords or House of Commons. McNaughton (2012:65) says the Blair government created variety of reforms for House of Lords and House of Commons after election in 1997. It included changes in organization of Prime Minister’s Question...
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...occurs when government doesn’t provide the values of democracy or when political representatives are shamed in the eyes of the public. In the UK there has been debate that Britain’s democracy is flawed. The voting system is unfair and recent expenses scandal exposed just how many politicians do not respect the position they are given. One of the main factors to argue there is a democratic deficit in the UK is the low levels of voter turnout and widespread discouragement with the FPTP system. In 2001 the UK received a general election turnout of 59.4%, the lowest since the start of universal suffrage in 1918. Low turnouts in elections will weaken the electoral mandate of the party and the legitimacy of the government, and if citizens are not participating in politics the decisions made by government are no longer in the interest of the whole nation. For instance the 2011 AV referendum got a turnout of just 42.2% so it would not accurate to base this result on a decision that will affect the whole country, when fewer than half of the population voted. Some suggest that the elections in the UK are not fair due to the “First Past the Post” voting system. The FPTP system favours two parties (the Labour and Conservative party) and this means that there is a reduced chance of smaller parties winning constituencies. In the 2010 general election the Labour party got 29% of the vote and gained 258 seats, whereas the Liberal Democrats won 23% of the votes but secured 57 seats. This shows...
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...The Election Process 2010 General Election The last UK General Election was held on 6th May 2010. No single party won an overall majority of the 650 House of Commons seats. The conservatives won 305 seats, representing 10.7 million votes (36%). Labour won 258 seats, representing 8.6 million votes (29%). The Liberal Democrats won 57 seats, representing 6.8 million votes (23%). The Liberal Democrats and The Conservatives joined together to make a coalition because no one had enough votes to win on their own. The Process of a General Election Fixed Term Parliament Act was passed on 15 September 2011, meaning that General Elections are now held on the first Thursday in May every five years. The date of the next general election is set at 7 May 2015. There are two situations in which a General Election will be called earlier than at five intervals. (i) A motion of no confidence has been passed by the House of Commons against the Government and 14 days has passed without the House of Commons passing a confidence motion in any newly formed Government; or (ii) A motion for a General Election is agreed by two thirds of the total number of MP’s in the House of Commons (currently 434 out of 650). You don’t do that unless you’re confident you can win that election. Once the Government has decided to call a General Election (either because the five years is up or an early election is needed), the Prime Minister will ask the Monarch to dissolve Parliament by Royal Proclamation...
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...the political reform process underway in the UK. You should examine the proposed changes under a number of headings including but not limited to the electoral system, the House of Lords, and open government. You must discuss why potential reform should take place, its observable implications and consider comparative examples where the changes already exist. Elections are an integral figure in any countries political system. Elections are also important symbolically in most competitive party systems, legitimizing a country’s political system in the eyes of it citizens. They offer a means of participating in politics, elections also give a feeling that they are exercising choices about who should represent them in the national parliament and about who should form the next government. One common debate of which Party System is best to run a Nation has long been argued by politicians and also which is the electoral system that governs the conduct of elections. With elections, change or reform can always be seen and in one case the United Kingdom is a perfect example, in May 2010 the first united coalition in the Britain since World War 2 and now currently there is an on-going debate for political reform in the UK regarding the current electoral system. Would new government bring closure to the drama of reform in The House of Lords? Or would the unelected house continue to cause up-set? The conservatives aimed to bring more transparency to the government of the UK in their manifesto...
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...In this essay I will explain the electoral process used in uk elections and then try to compare the electoral processes used at different levels of government in the uk. I will gather my research from internet or from books to present my essay. P3) There are lots of types of elections in the United Kingdom but the most common are general elections and local elections. I will now explain in detail one election process and clearly identify which government it relates to. A General election can occur when all the seats in the House of Commons are open for a re-election. There is a maximum term where a parliament can sit without general election for around 5 years, this type of election most often happens every 3 to 5 years but it can also depend on when the party that has power thinks they might have the best chance of winning the most seats. The prime minister is the one who makes the decision. So who can stand for election? Well this can depend on which type of election, for a parliamentary election, whether a general election where all 646 constituencies can be open for re-election, or a by election for just one constituencies. You also must be 21 years of age and be British, you must have to be nominated by 10 of the registered electors in the constituency and if you want to stand for a certain party you must receive the authorisation from that certain party. Therefore if you don’t have the authorisation from that certain party you are classed as independent, you must also...
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...movie are role prime minister, election system, and monarchy. First of all, I will start with the role of Prime Minister. There are three major parties and several small parties in UK. The major parties are Labour Party, the Liberal Democrat Party, and Conservative Party. The prime ministers are the most powerful heads of government of any contemporary democracy. They are also responsible for many governmental decisions. Similar to the Italy, even though the head of state is the president, the head of government is still prime minister. They are named by the Queen, and also have weekly meeting with the Queen. They are selected by the people, as the Mrs. Blair said in the movie, “you are a man that’s just been elected by the nation.” Prime Ministers play a very important role in the British government. Like the United States, the United Kingdom uses the single-member system based on plurality. Each of the 646 constituencies elected one Member of Parliament, and that member need to get more votes than any other candidate, but not the majority. The voters in UK select all 646bmembers of the House of Commons during the general election. UK campaigns are short affairs, usually lasting less than a month. Compare to US, UK voters focus more on differences between parties rather than on differences between candidates. However, according to the movie, the Queen does not have the right to interfere the election. The Queen and the prime minister in UK is similar to Japan. Although monarch...
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...To what extent have the UK prime ministers become more ‘presidential’? ( 25 ) T he theory that prime ministers are becoming more presidential can come under the term ‘presidentialism’. This is the notion that the British prime minister has outgrown the parliamentary system. This suggests that UK prime ministers increasingly resemble presidents such as Wilson, Thatcher and Blair usually being seen as key examples. Evidence that shows the growth of presidentialism is that some prime ministers tend to distance themselves from their parties and governments by representing themselves as outsiders or even developing personal ideological stance for example ‘Thatcherism’ or ‘Blarism’. Another piece of evidence is that prime ministers have personalized election campaigns which means the mass media increasingly portrays elections as personalized battles between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. Party leaders thus become the ‘brand image’ of their parties or government which means that personality and image have become major determinants of political success or failure. Furthermore, prime ministers have a strengthened cabinet office. The size and administrative resources available to the cabinet office have grown, turning it into a small-scale prime ministers department responsible for coordinating the rest of Whitehall. Also, prime ministers are using a wider range of special advisors as they are relying increasingly on hand-picked political advisors rather than...
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...Electoral process for candidates To be a candidate for the uk • You have to be a British citizen • a citizen of the Republic of Ireland • a citizen of a commonwealth country who does not require leave to enter or remain in the UK, or has indefinite leave to remain in the UK You cannot be • a member of the armed forces Electoral process for parliament First-past-the-post is used to elect MPs to the House of Commons and for local elections in England and Wales. the UK or local authority is divided into numerous voting areas i.e. constituencies . At a general or local election, voters put a cross (X) next to the candidate they like. Ballot papers are then counted and the candidate that has received the most votes is elected to represent the constituency. Alternative Vote The Alternative Vote is used to elect the majority of chairs of select committees in the House of Commons. voters rank candidates in order of preference by marking 1, 2, 3 and so on next to names of candidates on a ballot paper. A voter can rank as many or as few candidates as they like or just vote for one candidate. If no candidate hits the 50% mark the candidate with the lowest votes are eliminated. the second highest voted will then be added to the other candidates If not, the process of elimination and reallocation of preference votes is repeated until one candidate has more votes than the other remaining candidates put together, and is then elected. Supplementary Vote The Supplementary...
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...Committees and Select Committees? [5] Public Bills Committee is part of legislative process, whereas Select Committee is part of scrutiny process. In the former committee, the bill is examined by line by line to ensure that its wording and language is clear to allow any amendments on the bill. In the latter committee, there are two departments – governmental and non-governmental. They examine government departments’ expeditures , policies and policies. There are between 16 to 50 members in the PBC who are selected by Committee of Selection whose 7 out 9 members are ships. On the other hand, there are 11 members in the SCs and to eliminate “the conflict of interest, all the members are backbench members who are elected using the Alternative vote system. 2a What are the main functions of Parliament and how well does it perform them? [5] < This question is a 20-mark question > 3a What are the differences between direct and representative democracy? [5] In direct democracy, people are directly involved in decision-making processes, whereas in representative democracy, people elect MPs who will represent and form a government in Parliament. For instance, some qualified members of Athenian society were involved in decision-making and a referendum is a limited form of direct democracy. Also general elections are kind of parliamentary democracy, they are held every five years to election a representative and a government. There is potential danger that decision-making mechanisms...
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...In the 2010 general elections the Conservative Party gained the most votes but not the majority to form a government, therefore a coalition was formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats Party. I will be discussing two short term factors and two long term factors in my essay. The short term factors which I will be discussing are; the influence of the media and the election campaigns. The long term factors I will be discussing are; social class and the location of where the person lives. I believe that the influence on the media is the most important factor because the media influence so much of our lives nowadays and it is so easy to access all parts of the media through our phone. Therefore when a major newspaper is bias towards one they get more media coverage and the therefore it sways people’s opinions as all the positives about that political party are shown. Firstly, the influence of the media. The media nowadays comes in all different forms for example; newspapers, magazines, television and radio. The media is where people can form their opinions on the ability of political leaders and whether the government is doing a good job or not. The media determines what people see and what people hear, if they want to cover something up then they have the ability to do so as they decide what goes in to the public eye. In the dominant ideology model of voting behaviour its argued that the mass media has traditionally been supportive of the conservative party...
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...Essay : To what extent does democracy in the UK suffer from a ‘participation crisis’? Political participation is defined as opportunities for and tendencies of the people to become involved in the political process. At a minimum level this will involve voting, but may also involve active work in political parties and pressure groups. At the higher/highest level it implies standing for public office. However with regards to the United Kingdom suffering from a participation crisis, I would like to agree. Simply because, there has been a low turnout at general elections, which undermines the mandate of the government and threatens the idea that the UK is a representative democracy. Between 1922 and 1997 turnout remained above 71%. At the 2001 general election the turnout was59.4%; in 2005 it was 61.4%; in 2010 it was 65.1%; and in 2015 it was66.1%. Various people may consider the minor increase in percentage but overall there has not been a significant increase. Key forms of participation, such as voting and party membership have declined significantly over time, but other newer, faster forms have arisen and are slowly becoming more popular to the newer generations such as Referendums, particularly in Scotland. Popular engagement with the formal processes and institutions of democracy has been in long – term decline since the 1960’s. The turnout in 2001 was the lowest; this is compared to how between 1945 and 1992 it was always about 75 percent. Through this, it can be seen that...
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...How effectively do the UK's main political parties fuffil their key roles and functions? Introduction: In the UK we currently have a two party system the Labour party and the Conservative party, each party has main roles that they need to perform in order to provide an active government system. These key roles come in five different forms known as the following; * participation, this is where the parties allow members within the party as well as citizens to participate in the political process at all levels. * the political recruitment process, parties play a vital role in giving the future leaders their apprenticeship. The candidate selection processes cast aside the unsuitable. e * the policy formulation process,this is where parties hold debates and formulate policy before presenting the policies on a manifesto. * providing a stable government, without parties it is agrued that the House of Commons would simply be a gathering of over 600 individuals. Therefore, this essay will evaluate how effectively the UK's main political parties fulfill their core roles and functions. Participation Parties first role is through participation, encouraging not only citizens but members within their party. The quality of participation afforded to members is shaped largely by the extent to which political parties themselves are internally democratic. The Labour party in paticular has displayed many signs of internal party democracy, this was demonstrated through...
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