Democracy and participation · Notes

Direct democracy means voters decide policy themselves. The biggest UK case is the 2016 EU referendum; so are the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and the 2011 AV referendum. Direct democracy is also visible in the Recall of MPs Act 2015, in Westminster e-petitions (100,000 signatures triggers a Commons debate), and in citizens' assemblies.

Representative democracy is the default UK model: voters elect MPs and councillors who decide policy and face the voters again at the next election. Two models of how a representative should behave:

• Trustee (Burkean) model: the MP uses their own judgement, even against constituents' wishes. Burke's 1774 speech to the Bristol electors is the founding text: a representative betrays you 'if he sacrifices his judgement to your opinion'. This is the formal position of every UK MP.
• Delegate model: the representative votes how the voters instructed, not by their own view. Rare at Westminster, but party-conference and trade-union delegates work this way - and the case that MPs should be more delegate-like drives demands for recall and binding referendums.

Two further labels complete the set. Liberal democracy adds a rights framework on top of representative democracy - courts can strike down majority decisions that breach rights (the Miller cases on Brexit are recent examples). Pluralist democracy means power is spread across competing groups - parties, pressure groups, media, courts, devolved bodies; the elitist counter-case says a small set of decision-makers shapes the real outcomes regardless. The Westminster model itself is majoritarian: whoever wins the most votes wins everything - the 2024 result (Labour 411 seats on 33.7% of the vote) is the headline current case both for and against it.

The turnout evidence

UK general election turnout was 71% in 1997, 59% in 2001, 67% in 2019 and 60% in 2024. The 2024 figure is the lowest since 2001 and reopens the participation-crisis case. The gaps inside the headline matter too: turnout is lower among younger voters than older ones, and party membership covers only a small fraction of the electorate.

The democratic deficit - wider than turnout

• An unelected House of Lords with over 800 members
• Party-controlled selection of candidates
• Safe seats where votes barely matter under FPTP
• Opaque lobbying and unequal influence between organised insiders and unorganised citizens

The UK uses direct democracy on big constitutional questions, mainly through referendums. They are not the default, but they have decided the biggest questions of the last 30 years.

The case for referendums: direct legitimacy on questions that cut across party lines, high engagement when the stakes are clear, and a settled answer (2011 closed the AV question). The case against: complex questions reduced to binary choices, campaigns that inform unevenly, results that bind representatives elected to use their judgement - and answers that do not stay settled when the losing side keeps campaigning.

A citizens' assembly is a randomly selected panel of citizens that deliberates on a policy question and reports to Parliament - direct democracy by deliberation rather than by ballot.

• Climate Assembly UK (2020) - 108 citizens, 60 hours of deliberation on how the UK should reach net zero, reporting to Parliament. The standard UK example.
• Scottish Citizens' Assembly (2020) - the devolved counterpart, on Scotland's future.
• Ireland's citizens' assemblies - the international model: assemblies prepared the ground for the marriage equality referendum of 2015 (62% Yes) and the abortion referendum of 2018 (66% Yes) - decisive results on settled deliberative ground.

The case for: assemblies handle complexity better than a binary ballot, the random selection removes party framing, and the Irish record shows they can make divisive referendums land calmly. The case against: assemblies are advisory, small and slow; their recommendations only matter if elected politicians act on them; and critics ask why 108 citizens should frame a question for millions.

Six big franchise widenings shape the suffrage story:

Scotland (from the 2014 referendum, then Holyrood elections) and Wales (Senedd elections from 2021) have lowered the age to 16 for devolved elections - so the UK now runs two franchises at once.

Why the history matters analytically. Reformers point to it: every major widening was resisted and every one eventually settled, and the votes-at-16 case sits in that pattern. The counter-case: Westminster is different - general elections decide governments, not single questions, so the maturity test is sharper. The votes-at-16 campaign is the standard answer to the spec point asking for 'the work of a current movement to extend the franchise'.

The reform proposals on the table:

• Votes at 16 - the most evidenced option: Scotland and Wales already do it for devolved elections.
• Compulsory voting - Australia uses it and turnout there sits around 87-90%+; the UK counter is that compulsion does not fix the deeper apathy, it just changes how it shows up.
• Online voting - convenience against security and verification risks.
• An elected upper chamber - answers the Lords-legitimacy criticism directly.
• More citizens' assemblies - the deliberative route (card 4).
• Proportional representation - answers the safe-seats and wasted-votes criticisms.
• Recall of MPs - already partly in place: the Recall of MPs Act 2015 lets 10% of constituents trigger a by-election when an MP breaks the rules.
• A written constitution - the structural answer to executive power.

• Marks: Paper 1 Section A questions are 30 marks, split AO1 10 / AO2 10 / AO3 10. Q1 variants are source questions: pair the source's two views, weigh both, and analyse only the source's information - outside knowledge develops source points.
• Family 1 - 'UK democracy is in crisis'. Structure around the three criticism pillars: non-elected institutions (the Lords), electoral systems (FPTP distortions - Labour 411 seats on 33.7% in 2024), and executive power. Split symptom from cause throughout.
• Family 2 - 'the franchise should be extended'. The franchise pack carries the full apparatus; the suffrage history (card 5) supplies the framing argument.
• Family 3 - 'direct democracy should play a greater role'. The referendum table (card 3) and the citizens' assemblies (card 4) are your evidence; the trustee model (card 1) is the representative-democracy counter.
• Commit a line of argument in the introduction and deliver it - no fence-sitting. Interim judgements through the essay score better than a one-line summary at the end.
• Name and date the evidence. '84.6% turnout at the 2014 Scottish referendum' scores; 'referendum turnout can be high' does not.