Representative Democracy and Elections
 Introduction
The word “Democracy” derives from the Greek words “demos” and “kratos”
meaning “people” and “rule” respectively such that it may be broadly
defined as the rule of the people and, indeed, Abraham Lincoln famously
defined democracy as “Government of the people by the people for the
people. However despite the apparent clarity of his definition several
difficulties arise once the term “Democracy” is considered in more detail.
It then becomes necessary to distinguish between Direct Democracy where
citizens participate actively in governing their own political affairs
Representative Democracy where the people elect representatives to carry
out the business of government.
Representative Democracy is usually equated with Liberal Democracy
which describes the political system which originated in the USA and
Western Europe and has subsequently been adopted in many so-called Third
World countries and may gradually be well established in the former USSR
and its former satellites in Eastern Europe. Liberal Democratic regimes may
be classified as either Presidential or Parliamentary systems and there are
also important variations within these broad categories
Representative democracies are based upon several interrelated principles:
1. the existence of regular, free, fair elections based upon universal
suffrage and secret ballots;
2. the existence of competing political parties offering electoral choice;
3. the existence of electoral laws supervised by an independent judiciary;
4. freedom of speech and association ;
5. freedom to stand as an election candidate;
6. “reasonable” relationships between votes cast and representatives
elected;
7. availability of accurate unbiased political information.
If provisions 2-7 are in place elections would be reasonably democratic but
the existence of representative democracy demands also that executive
activity is bound by the rule of law, that legislative scrutiny of the executive
is efficient, that the Judiciary is independent of the executive, that pressure
groups exist which can influence the political process between elections, that
citizens have the right to political protest and that the rights of minorities are
respected.
It follows therefore that the existence of democratic elections are a necessary
but not a sufficient condition for the existence of representative democracy.
Bearing in mind this important conclusion let us now assess in more detail
the functions of General Elections in representative democracy as in the case
of the UK.
 Functions of General Elections in the UK
The Timing of UK General Elections
The Septennial Act of 1715 provided for General Elections to be held at
least every 7 years but this term was reduced to 5 years in the Parliament Act
of 1911. Within this 5 year period the actual timing of the General Election
could be determined by the current government since Monarchs are always
prepared to accept the advice of the Prime Minister in relation to the timing
of the General Election and this fact gave considerable electoral advantage
to current governments which to some extent were able to choose General
Election dates which were favourable to their own re-election.
Proposals for Fixed Term Parliaments were an integral part of the
Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement which was published
after the General Election of 2010 and the Coalition Government soon
introduced a Fixed Term Parliament Bill which received the Royal Assent
on September 15th 2011. This Act fixed the date of the next General Election
at May 7th 2015 and provided for subsequent 5 year terms
Under the terms of the Act the Prime Minister can , however alter the
General Election date by up to two months via the use of a Statutory
Instrument and General Elections can also be triggered before the 5 year
period has elapsed in the following circumstances:
1. If a Motion of No Confidence in the Government is passed and no
over-riding Motion of Confidence is passed within 14 days of the
original Motion of No Confidence and if in the opinion of the Speaker
no alternative government can be found within the House of
Commons.
2. If a motion for an early General Election is agreed either by at least
Two Thirds of the House of Commons or without any division. [In the
original version of the Bill a 55% Majority was to be required to
secure the early general election but this was subsequently increased
by amendment to Two Thirds.]
The actual passage of the Bill created some difficulties for the Government
but these were eventually overcome.
1. Labour and Plaid Cymru tabled an alternative amendment proposing 4
year fixed terms but this amendment was defeated.
2. The Government was initially defeated in the House of Lords which
voted in favour of an amendment which would have caused the Act to
lapse after a General Election unless it was renewed by Parliament ;
the so-called “Sunset Clause”.
3. However eventually the Lords subsequently voted in favour of a
compromise amendment whereby the Bill was accepted but with an
agreement to review it in 2010 and as stated the Bill received the
Royal Assent on September 15th 2011
For further information on the Fixed Term Parliament Act you may consult
the following links.
Click here and here and here and here for BBC coverage of the
Passage of the Fixed Term Parliaments Bill
Click here for a very detailed report. Pages 10-12 provide useful
information on the strengths and weaknesses of Fixed Term
Parliaments.
Click here for an interesting article on the implications of the Act
1. General Elections are important foci for the recruitment of new
political representatives. Prior to each General Election new
prospective parliamentary candidates will have to be found to
oppose sitting MPs and to replace sitting MPs who have
declared their intention not to seek re-election. Successful
candidates will be elected as MPs and may also in some cases
go on to pursue careers as government ministers.
2. It is claimed that General Elections play an important
informative, educative role for voters. Governing parties
3.
4.
5.
6.
attempt to defend their past record in government against the
criticisms of opposition parties while all parties produce
Manifestos outlining their future plans if elected to government.
The past record of government, the effectiveness of opposition
parties and all parties’ manifestos are scrutinised by the mass
media so that individual voters are assisted in their choice of
preferred General Election candidates.
General Elections enable the voters in each constituency to
choose between alternative candidates and thereby to elect MPS
to represent them in the Legislature i.e. the House of Commons.
Thus the outcome of the General Election determines the party
composition of the House of Commons.
Since the political party which secures an overall majority of
MPs elected to the House of Commons will then be invited by
the Monarch to form a government it is clear that General
Elections also enable voters to choose indirectly which political
party will form the next government. [If no party secures an
overall House of Commons majority of MPs minority
governments or coalition governments may be formed.]
General Elections are an important mechanism for ensuring that
governments are held accountable for their political actions.
Governments will aim to implement manifesto promises and to
govern effectively in the realisation that, if they fail to do so,
they are unlikely to be re-elected in the next General Election.
They will recognise also that the prospect of electoral defeat is
further increased because a record of failure may discourage
voters from believing that new policies will be successful
unless, of course, future opposition policies are regarded as
even less credible.
General Elections provide some limited opportunities for voters
to influence government policy directly. During the 4-5 year
lifetime of a Parliament [5 years following the passage of the
Fixed Term Parliament Act] both government and opposition
parties may modify future policy plans in response to opinion
poll trends in an attempt to enhance their prospects of electoral
success. It is possible also that during the course of actual
General Elections candidates may receive information from
voters as to the popularity or otherwise of particular policies
and that this information may have some effects on future
policy formation especially, perhaps, in the case of the losing
parties.
7. Once MPs have been elected to the House of Commons and a
government has been chosen by the winning party, that
government can claim that it has a legitimate right to govern in
accordance with its manifesto proposals. Expressing this point
slightly differently the elected government can claim that it has
a mandate to govern in accordance with its manifesto proposals
although it should admit also that it has no mandate to introduce
major policies not included in its manifesto. Given the
complexity of party policy both Labour and Conservative
parties have focussed especially on a limited number of
manifesto pledges which could in principle enable future voters
to assess more easily the extent to which major manifesto
proposals have been implemented. However both parties have
been accused in the recent past of failure on some issues to
govern in accordance with manifesto promises.Examples?
8. It is vital to note that the existence of General Elections within
representative democracy in the UK does provide for a peaceful
transition of power to a new government almost always formed
from the political party securing most votes in the General
Election. Recent political news from countries such as Burma
and Pakistan shows the chaos which can arise where there are
no procedures for the peaceful transition of power in
accordance with the wishes of the people.
However as we shall now see UK General Elections are not a
perfect mechanism for the representation of citizens’ interests.
 Functions of General Elections in the UK: A More Critical
Assessment
1. It is open to question how informative and educational for voters
the General Election process actually is. Party leaders and
individual candidates may overstate both the advantages of their
own policies and the disadvantages of their opponents’ policies
while in some [but not all sections of the General Election may be
politically biased and focussed on personalities, photoopportunities and soundbites rather than on detailed coverage of
political issues. Detailed analysis of the issues can be found but
many voters do not have the time, the interest of perhaps the
educational level to assess the effectiveness of party policies.
2. Although General Elections are based on the principle of Universal
suffrage rates of non –voting are high, for reasons which outlined
elsewhere.
3. It is argued that the operation of the FPTP electoral system is itself
undemocratic in that the parties’ proportions of House of
Commons seats won are not equal to their proportions of votes
gained. The Labour Party gained considerably at the expense of
other parties in the General Elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005. We
may note,for example, that the turnout in 2005 was 63% and that
Labour gained 35.2 % of the vote meaning about 22% of the
electorate but 55.1 % of the seats in the House of Commons.
Recent General Election results are shown below.
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Vote %
1997
30.7
43.4
16.8
Seat %
1997
25
63.4
7
Vote %
2001
31.7
40.7
18.3
Seat %
2001
25.2
62.7
7.9
Vote %
2005
32.3
35.2
22
Seat %
2005
30.5
55.1
9.6
Vote%
2010
36.1
29.0
23.0
Sea
%
201
46.9
39.7
8.8
% Party Shares of Votes and Seats in Recen
% Party Shares of Votes and Seats: Recent
General Elections
General Elections
70
70
60
60
50
50
Vote % 1997
40
40
Seat % 1997
Cons
Vote % 2001
Labou
30
30
Seat % 2001
Libera
20
20
Vote % 2005
10
10
Seat % 2005
0
0
Conservative
Labour
Vote % Seat % Vote % Seat % Vote % Seat %
Liberal Democrat
1997
1997
2001
2001
2005
2005
4. When voters vote for a particular political party their decisions
may be influenced by social factors such as their social class, age,
gender, region, religion and ethnicity and/or by the personalities
and characteristics of the party leaders rather than their support for
particular party policies. Also voters who are more influenced by
party policies will not necessarily have supported all of the policies
of the party which they have voted for.
5. Once MPs have been elected they may interpret their
responsibilities of representation in various ways. We shall have to
consider a little later the textbook coverage of trustees, delegates,
party representation and resemblance.
 Conclusions