Evaluae the viw that referendums have a positive impact on democracy and politics in the UK

Introduction

• a referendum is a popular vote on a particular issue, usually requiring aa yes/no vote eg. 2016 EU Referendum

• in the UK, there is no constitutional mechanism requiring them to be held, instead the prime minister call when when they think it is right

Paragraph Focus

• Para 1 = Representative democracy

• Para 2 = Referendum’s Purpose

• Para 3 = Turnout and Political Awareness

Para 1 = Weaker Argument - Negative Impact

• it can be argued that the direct democracy of referendums are a challenge to representative democracy in the UK.

• The UK political system is based on voters electing professional representatives to take decisions on their behalf

• It can be argued that ordinary people lack the expertise to make decisions on complex issues

• questions and campaigns can be easily misled by campaigns and political leaders

• For example, the likely future level and negative impact of EU immigration to the UK was overstated by the Leave campaign

Para 1 = Stronger Argument - Positive Impact

• It can be argued that referendums benefit democracy in the UK by directly involving the people in decision making on important issues

• The 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum is a good example of this….

• This shows that referendums have a positive impact 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 elected dictatorship

Para 2 = Weaker Argument - Negative Impact

• the holding of referendums has also been influenced by political party motivations

• This can be seen as negative for democracy and politics as it leads to important constitutional issues being decided in order to benefit individual parties at a specific time

• this can be said of the 2016 Brexit referendum, which aided Cameron's Conservative Party.

• In the run up to the 2015 election, the rise of UKIP risked the Conservatives losing a lot of votes

• Pledging to hold an EU Referendum in the 2015 election campaign enabled the Conservatives to maintain the support of many important voters and win the 2015 election

Para 2 = Stronger Argument - Positive Impact

• Referendums are also sometimes called to give legitimacy to key constitutional issues.

• Referendums give constitutional changes legitimacy and ensure they're unlikely to be reversed, even though the UK has an uncodified constitution.

• The devolution referendums in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are good examples of this, ensuring the new devolved bodies had legitimacy

Para 3 - Weaker

Para 3 - Stronger