Explain and analyze the British political system
Explain and analyze the British political system
Chapter 6
Referenda and Federalism
Bringing politics closer to the people. Explain and analyze the British political system.
-The purpose of referenda and federalism is to bring politics closer to the people;
referenda make possible for the people to vote directly on a parliamentary issue,
and federalism “devolves” (transfers, delegates) political decision-making from the
center to the regions, where decisions are made taking into account the specific
context of a region.
Referenda
-In a representative democracy, the voters elect their representatives who then
make decisions on behalf of them. In a direct democracy, specific matters are
decided by the voters themselves in referenda. Switzerland practices the
referendum the most of all European countries. It often takes a long time to
convince Swiss voters to accept a new idea. The best example is the introduction of
female suffrage. In 1971, women won the right to vote at the national level, but it
took until 1991 for woman to gain the right to vote on local issues on certain
cantons.
-Referenda are often employed on highly charged, emotional political issues such as
immigration, asylum seekers an others.
-The referendum in Switzerland has had an educating effect and has raised the level
of political awareness, but the Swiss voter should not be viewed as idealistic and
responsible when making decisions on certain issues.
– For a long time, Switzerland was the only European country practicing the
referendum at a significant level. In recent years, there has been a trend all over
Europe to refer political decisions more often to referenda. This trend has increased
in number and importance in many European countries. For example, Sweden and
Austria, settled the tricky issue of nuclear power in referenda. In Italy and Ireland,
the controversial issue of divorce was submitted to referendum.
-As for Great Britain, the British doctrine is that in a referendum the voice of the
people is expressed in raw form, where as in Parliamentary debate these various
voices are integrated through negotiations into a more unified overall will. However,
the reality of the House of Commons does not correspond to this doctrine since
debates are often partisan and rancorous. Nevertheless, the doctrine still helps to
justify the belief that a true democracy should be of a representative in nature.
Answer Preview………
APA 1436 words