When is a
democracy not a democracy? When it's in Briton!
If
you ask any politician, they will tell you that Great Briton is a
democracy. They are how ever incorrect and I feel it's very
important for the average person in Briton to understand why the
politicians are wrong and why we are not living in a democratic
country.
Democracy
is power coming from the people and this is the one thing that will
bring hardened politicians awake in the middle of the night
screaming.
Well
what exactly is democracy?
The term originates
from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) "power from
the people", which was found from δῆμος (dêmos) "people"
and κράτος (krátos) "power"
Representative democracy would be fine if the representatives would really make all their decisions only after consulting their constituencies. In the least, after having a clear idea about the views of their constituents on a particular issue, and trying to accommodate these views as best as possible (or postpone the decisions until an overwhelming majority of the constituents would be happy with them).
Unfortunately, a vast majority of countries that call themselves Representative Democracies are not true democracies according to the above definition. Most of them are actually just Elected Dictatorships. People can vote usually only once every four or five years. They do not vote on any issues. They just elect their so called representatives who then until the next elections have no obligations by law and little incentives to base their decisions on individual issues on the wishes on their electorate. They hardly ever bother to consult them on their stands on various issues. Therefore, legislative bodies composed of such "representatives" act in a very dictatorial manner between the elections.
Democracy
is where the average person gets to have a say in how the country is
run, and the country is run to benefit the population as a whole
rather than a small proportion of voters, the politicians and the
party's they are in and a select elite. As a practical exercise, try
writing to your politician asking them to represent you and your
views or concerns in parliament (which is their job after all) in a
matter that goes against their party's policy. They will do nothing,
if you are lucky you'll get a generic reply, which begs the question,
who is your MP really serving, their constituents who voted them in
or their party? MP have to tow the line as they say which means it's
the party's interests first and their constituents/country a poor
second!
It's
about now that the politicians would be jumping up and down and
shouting “but we give you a vote in the elections! That's
democracy right there!” The elections are however anything but
democratic. Briton uses a voting system called First Past The Post,
FPTP. This voting system benefits the two major party's as they only
need to collect a small percentage of the overall votes in order to
get into power. Small party's that can't put a candidate in every
constituency don't stand a chance and yet over all may pull in a
greater number of votes. In many areas voters want to support their
chosen party but can't, and are then faced with ether not voting or
worse voting for a party they don't believe in.
So what should we do? We as in the electorate. We need to take power back from the undemocratic party's by forcing them to adopt a voting system that works for us and not just for the two big party's. Politicians need to represent us, not just their own best interests. I think that proportional representation is one of the better options open to us.
Proportional Representation. An electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them. Proportional systems protect against bad, unrepresentative public policy, and ensure that the wishes of all voters – not just those in marginal constituencies – are taken into account.
iIn
the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a
practice intended to establish a political advantage for a
particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The
resulting district is known as a gerrymander, however, that word
can also refer to the process. The term gerrymandering has negative
connotations.
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