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

• Direct democracy can be seen as a superior as it directly involves the people in decision making

• this gives them real power in democracy and prevents their wishes being ignored by representatives.

• This can be seen in recent referendums in the UK, which have given the people decision making power over key constitutional issues

• 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

Para 1 - Stronger Argument = Representative Democracy

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

• 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

• By contrast in representative democracy, key decisions are made by professionals who are knowledgeable

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

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

• One key benefit of direct democracy is that it gives equal weight to all votes

• it also forces campaigns to seek to appeal to all voters, rather than targeting specific important groups of voters in specific constituencies.

• This contributes to relatively high turnouts in recent referendums, as people can be confident their vote will matter.

• 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

• Whilst direct democracy does give equal weight to all votes, it leads to a ‘tyranny of the majority’.

• As direct democracy is a majoritarian system, it can be seen as disregarding the viewpoints of those who aren’t part of the majority.

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

• 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

• 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

• it can be argued that direct democracy is superior to representative democracy, as the latter fails to deliver effective representation in practice

• 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.

• direct democracy can therefore be seen as there is no possibility for the views and wishes 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 October 2022, 33 Conservative MPs rebelled against Liz Truss’ government