Evaluate The Argument That Direct Democracy Is Superior To Representative Democracy

Introduction

• Direct Democracy = a type of democracy that emerged from the Athens in which all individuals express their opinions themselves eg. the 2016 Brexit Referendum

• Representative Democracy = a form of democracy where individuals select a person/political party to exercise political choice on their behalf eg. when the British electorate voted in Labour in the 2024 general election

Paragraph Focus

• Para 1 = Decision Making

• Para 2 = Representation

• Para 3 = Effectiveness

Para 1 - Weaker Argument = Direct Democracy

• this can be seen The Scottish Independence referendum in 2014 was praised for giving an opportunity to air a wide range of issues related to independence

• There was a very high turnout at 84.6%, including many 16 and 17 years olds who were able to vote

• This shows that direct democracy is superior as it gives the people decision making power over key constitutional issues

• this gives them real power in democracy and prevents their wishes being ignored by representatives, preventing a democratic deficit

Para 1 - Stronger Argument = Representative Democracy

• In the 2016 EU referendum, for example, the Leave campaign lied a number of times, which may have played an important role in winning them the referendum

• this shows that whilst direct democracy does directly involve the people in decision making, it also leaves them open to manipulation from certain political influences

• By contrast in representative democracy, key decisions are made by professionals who are knowledgeable eg. PM Starmer has a law degree

• As a consequence, they are less likely to be manipulated due to governing competency

Para 1 - Evaluation

• clearly the argument that direct democracy is superior is the weaker argument to a large extent as it fails to consider the impracticality of giving full power to the people

• clearly the argument that representative democracy is superior is stronger to a large extent because as it considers the vulnerabilities of direct democracy and how these are counteracted with representative democracy

Para 2 - Weaker Argument = Direct Democracy

• eg. 2011 AV Referendum, 67.9% voted against a change to the electoral system

• this shows that direct democracy is that it gives equal weight to all votes

• in turn, this forces campaigns to seek to appeal to all voters, rather than targeting specific important groups of voters

• This contributes to relatively high turnouts in recent referendums, as people can be confident their vote will matter eg. 84% in Scottish Independence Referendum

• This contrasts with representative democracy in the UK, where the First Past The Post electoral system leads to votes being of greatly unequal value

• This is due to the difference between safe seats, such as Tooting for Labour, and marginal seats, such as Thanet South which either discourage or encourage turnout amongst voters

Para 2 - Stronger Argument = Representative Democracy

• For example, for the EU referendum the Conservative government pursued a hard Brexit which can be seen as disregarding the views of those who voted Remain

• Whilst shows that whilst direct democracy does give equal weight to all votes, it leads to a ‘tyranny of the majority’ as it is a majoritarian system

• This has the potential to threaten those who are in the minority and fail to represent them politically.

• representative democracy has less of a chance of leading to tyranny of the majority as minority group will have representation in Parliament

• this leads to a pluralist democracy where the government makes decisions as a result of various ideas and contrasting arguments

Para 2 - Evaluation

• clearlybthe argument that direct democracy is weaker to an extent as despite it being more effective for equal representatioj of votes

Para 3 - Weaker Argument = Direct Democracy

• MPs rely on their parties to gain power and are whipped heavily by them to vote with the party in Parliament.

• If they fail to do so, they have little chance of climbing the party ladder and gaining more power by entering the cabinet.

• this shows that direct democracy is superior as the latter fails to deliver effective representation in practice

• by contrast, with direct democracy, there is no possibility for the views of the public to be ignored or manipulated to serve the interests of politicians

Para 3 - Weaker Argument = Representative Democracy

• It can be argued that representative democracy is superior as it allows for accountability and effective representation.

• elections are held on a regular basis, which allows the public to hold their representatives to account and vote them out if they don’t think they have done a god job.

• This leads to MPs putting great emphasis on representing their constituencies effectively.

• For example, In 2025, 120 Labour MPs rebelled against Keir Starmer over his proposed welfare reform bill