UK Politics: Democracy and Participation Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts, historical milestones, and contemporary debates regarding democracy, participation, and the franchise in the UK political system.

Democracy

Rule by the people.

Representative Democracy

A form of democracy in which the people select individuals, often sorted into political parties, to act on their behalf to exercise political choice and make decisions.

Direct Democracy

A political system in which individuals express their opinions and vote on laws and policies themselves rather than through representatives acting on their behalf.

Referendum

A direct vote by the public on a particular proposal or issue, which can take place across a whole country or be localized to a particular territory or region.

Recall of MPs Act 2015

An act allowing a petition to be triggered if an MP is sentenced to be imprisoned or suspended from the Commons for more than $21$ days; if $10 \%$ of eligible voters sign, a by-election is called.

Citizens’ Assemblies

A small group of citizens, chosen by sortition, who learn about an issue and discuss it before reaching a decision, ensuring they represent the demographics of the country.

Sortition

A process used to select participants for citizens' assemblies to ensure they collectively mirror the broader public in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and other characteristics.

E-petitions

A digital system run by Parliament’s Petitions Committee allowing the electorate to create petitions that can trigger a written government response at $10,000$ signatures or a parliamentary debate at $100,000$ signatures.

Pluralist Democracy

A type of democracy in which a government makes decisions as a result of the interplay of various ideas and arguments from competing groups and organizations.

Legitimacy

The legal right to exercise power, such as a government's right to rule following an election where it derived support from the people.

Protective Perspective

A view that democracy serves as a protection for individual freedom and requires only enough large-scale citizen participation to grant the system legitimacy.

Developmental Perspective

The belief that for democracy to be successful and healthy, citizens need to engage with the system on an active and regular basis.

Tyranny of the Majority

A criticism of direct democracy where minority viewpoints are disregarded because the views of the majority are not mediated through a parliamentary body.

Political Apathy

A lack of awareness or interest in political issues that affect society, often cited as a reason for low voter turnout.

Slacktivism

Participation that takes little real effort and has little real impact, such as online e-petitions, which is argued to not be a replacement for traditional participation.

Hapathy

A blend of the words 'happiness' and 'apathy,' suggesting that low voter turnout occurs because people are generally content and do not feel the need to push for change.

Democratic Deficit

A perceived deficiency in the way a democratic body works, particularly regarding a lack of accountability and control over policy-making.

Cronyism

The appointment of friends or donors to influential positions or granting them special access, as alleged in the 'freebiegate' and 'PPE Medpro' scandals.

1832 Great Reform Act

A historic act that abolished rotten boroughs, created seats for urban areas, and extended the vote to middle-class men, increasing the electorate to roughly $5 \%$ of the population.

Chartists

A working-class mass movement that campaigned for universal male suffrage over $21$, secret ballots, and payment for MPs after the failure of the $1832$ Act.

Suffragists

Members of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) led by Millicent Fawcett, who used peaceful methods like lobbying and demonstrations to seek the vote.

Suffragettes

Members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) led by Emmeline Pankhurst, who used militant and violent tactics to pressure the government for women's suffrage.

1918 Representation of the People Act

Legislation that granted the vote to all men over $21$ and women over $30$ who were householders or wives of householders.

Voter ID Laws

Rules introduced in $2023$ requiring voters to present specific photo identification at polling stations, which critics argue suppresses turnout among specific demographics.

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)

A proposed reform in the Representation of the People Bill $2026$ that aims to increase turnout by automatically registering eligible citizens to vote.

Personation

The specific electoral offense of using someone else's vote or pretending to be another person to cast a ballot.