What does ‘demos’ mean?
People
What does ‘kratia’ mean?
Power
What was the ISIS petition?
Called ‘Ban all ISIS members from returning to the UK’.
Got over 500k signatures before being debated in Parliament. Debated May 2019.
Turnout for the AV vote?
How many voted yes to AV?
How many no?
41%
32%
68%
What was the turnout of the Scottish Independence Referendum? (2014).
How many said yes to independence?
How many said no?
85%
45%
55%
What was the turnout of the Brexit referendum (2016)?
Remain vote?
Leave vote?
72%
48%
52%
What did Edmund say about Representative democracy?
A representative betrays his judgement if he “sacrifices it to your opinion”
What did Rousseau say about representative democracy?
As soon as members are elected, “the people is enslaved”.
How much of the vote did the Tories win in 2017? (%)
What was the turnout for this election?
42%
69%
In 2010, how many MPs were uni graduates? How many UK adults?
90% MPs
20% adults
Evidence to suggest turnout is bad:
We’ve never topped the 70% figure since 1997. 69% in 2017.
1950 turnout = over 80%.
Evidence to suggest turnout is good:
There’s been a small recovery since 2001: 59% in 2001 to 69% in 2017
Evidence to suggest referendums have good turnout:
Scottish Independence Referendum had a 85% turnout.
Evidence to suggest referendums have bad turnout:
AV = 41% turnout
What Article does banning prisoner voting go against? When did the UK find a compromise?
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
2017
What was the turnout of general election in Germany in 2013?
What was the turnout of the USA’s presidential election (2016)?
Germany = over 70%.
USA = 55%
Name a famous suffragette
Emmeline Pankhurst
When was the Ballot Act? What did it do?
1872 - all voting now in secret to deter corruption/intimidation.
Equal Franchise Act?
1928 - now all adults 21+ can vote
Representation of the People Act?
- Most adult men (21+) and some adult married women (30+) could vote
What is one of the stunts that ‘Fathers4Justice’ have done?
David Chick climbed a 120ft crane while dressed as spiderman
What pressure group is involved in lobbying and likely has access points?
The NFU (‘National Farmer’s Union). These access points include local, regional and national levels. Lobbying = seeking meetings with ministers to put forward your case.
Which groups are known for public campaigning?
Plane Stupid, Countryside Alliance, Greenpeace
Which group has used illegal methods? What did they do?
‘Plane Stupid’ - wanting to show dangerous of airport expansion, so they trespassed at Heathrow Airport in 2016 and disrupted flights.
What group has a large membership?
Which groups have lots of funds?
Age UK - can put more pressure on decision makers.
Business pressure groups ‘Institute of Directors’ and ‘Confederation of British Industry’. Can hire lobbyists.
What is Labour more sympathetic towards? Tory?
What group was resisted by Blair?
Labour = The FBU (Fire Brigades Union) in 2017
Tories = Countryside Alliance.
‘Stop the War Coalition’ (2003).
What is the powerful countervailing group to ‘Forest”?
ASH - anti-smoking pressure group.
When was Justice For Gurkhas (SECTIONAL) active?
When did the government release a limited law?
When did Lumley meet the immigration minister?
2009 - fighting for Nepalese soldiers served in British army to settle.
April 2009 - Gurkhas can only settle if spent 20 years in the army.
May 2009
When did Lumley win?
May 2009
What was the new law?
Gurkhas who have served at least 4 years in the army + have retired before 1997 can settle.
Failure of the Gurkha campaign?
According to the British Gurkha Welfare Society, campaign resulted in 1000s of elderly + frail pensioners living in poor accommodation w/low incomes.
What do ASH campaign for? Insider or outsider?
Success/failure?
Prevent harm caused by tobacco. Insider (uses lobbying).
Success = have blocked attempts of the tobacco industry to derail negotiations of the Tobacco Treaty, which would work to control tobacco.
Failure = have not had success in altering gov policy in area of e-cigs.
Name a right-wing thinktank
Name a left-wing thinktank
‘Adam Smith Institute’ - promotes free-market solutions to economic problems.
‘Fabian Society’ - social justice
Name a neutral thinktank.
Demos - current political issues
What does Jamie Oliver do? Why do celebs influence gov?
Lobbies government to tackle childhood obesity.
Media attention and public sympathy hard to ignore.
When was the Human Rights Act signed? When did it come into force?
Signed 1998, came into force in 2000
List 3 cherished civil liberties
The right to not be imprisoned without trial.
The right to have a fair trial.
The right to vote and stand for election.
List 2 freedoms that the Human Rights Act enshrines into UK law
Freedom from torture
Freedom from servitude
When was the Freedom of Information Act passed? What does it do?
Race Relations Act?
Equal Pay Act?
- Allows people to find the out info held by tax authorities, social security, etc
1965
1970
When was the Equality Act passed?
2010
Name 4 things that reveal a healthy democracy.
Free elections - anyone (unless underage) can vote. Limitation = no voted in Lords.
Widespread participation, eg pressure groups + referendums. Limitation = low turnouts.
Freedom of association, eg Blair Stop the War coalition. Limitation = hatred associations banned.
Protection of rights, eg HRA 1998. But, limitation = it isn’t binding.
What did Ed Miliband do that increased political participation?
Made it possible in 2015 to join the party for just £3. Allowed a broader section of Labour supporters to vote in leadership elections.
What could be done to make the UK more democratic?
- Encourage active participation. Lower voting age + make wider use of online petitions.
- Deliver fair representation. Can be done by redrawing electoral districts.
What could get more people voting?
Compulsory voting. + = inc legitimacy. - = right not to vote.
Votes for 16. + = laws affect them too. - Tory viewpoint - 16s vote for libsz
Digital voting. + = an extension of clickocracy. - = result if unexpected would not be as accepted (maybe hacking).
What are the aims of Amnesty?
What are the aims of Fathers4Justice?
What is Greenpeace concerned with?
Put pressure on govs to get rid of death penalty; human rights.
For fathers to have equal custody rights to mothers
The environment.
What beneficial functions do pressure groups perform?
- call gov to account, eg Greenpeace.
- To educate, eg Amnesty.
- To lobby, eg the NFU.
- to increase participation,
- To give fringe people more of a say, etc EDL against Islam.
What do promotional groups campaign for? Give examples.
Broad causes. Amnesty = human rights, Greenpeace = environment.
Give an example of a promotional group’s narrow cause.
Stop HS2 - focuses on rural areas.
Why are sectional groups different? How are some of them hybrids?
Give an example of a sectional group.
Sectional groups pursue interests of a section. ‘Countryside Alliance’ focuses on the countryside, but claims that everyone benefits from it.
Muslim Council of Britain.
Why aren’t Google (sectional group) ignored by the gov?
What specially privileged position do insiders enjoy?
They have an importance place in the economy - so have resisted calls for more UK tax on their profits.
They are put on special gov committees, eg the National Farmers Union (sectional) + can lobby.
What are lobbyists sometimes criticised for?
What do lobbyists do?
Hardly neutral - exist to promote a particular interest, and are criticised for being the ‘hidden face’ of influence.
Arrange meetings with politicians to further a group’s case.
What do think tanks do?
Carry out research into policy areas, and are used by gov / private sources.
When has the government occasionally suspended its adherence to the ECHR?
In times of heightened terrorist threat, eg holding terrorists for long periods without trial after 9/11.
How do human rights extend beyond civil liberties?
Extend to having decent standard of living, access to good healthcare, etc.
Advantages of representative democracy; disadvantages.
Advantage = reps have superior judgement, less swayed by emotion.
Disadvantage = total social representation is difficult to achieve.
What 8 things reveal that we live in a representative democracy?
Direct?
Constituencies; electoral comission; expectation on the government; pressure groups; manifesto + mandate (after public permission; parties reveal diff options; decentralisation eg Sadiq Kahn 2016.
Increased referendums + Epetitions.
What are the rules behind Epetitions?
10k = response from gov; 100k = debate in Parliament.
Advantages of direct democracy; disadvantages.
Avoid deadlock and delay. Increased legitimacy.
Can lead to ‘tyranny of the majority’.
What petition reached 2 million signatures in February?
Give an example of a public Marx.
To revoke article 50. Signatures climbed to 5 million. But, May refused to consider.
‘Put it to the People’ March in February. Over a million people joined.