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Democratic Deficit and the United Kingdom

            The phrase "democratic deficit" describes any situation in which there is believed to be a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision making process. The main areas in which this is apparent in the UK are within; The House of Lords, the lack of Proportional Representation, low voter turnout and the influence on the EU on UK policy making. In many ways the House of Lords is undemocratic, purely because of its make up. The fact that 92 peers remain on the basis of the hereditary principle is largely undemocratic because they are not elected into their position and thus do not reflect the will of their people. Similarly the other members also are not elected but instead are dubiously appointed due to party patronage and therefore lack legitimacy. On the other hand there has to be a liaison between The House of Lords and The House of Commons "which is made up of elected MP's" meaning that the impact of this democratic deficit is minimal. To combat issues of democratic deficit as far as The House of Lord's is concerned, we could introduce an elected second chamber, upholding legitimacy.
             There is a lack of proportional representation in the UK as a whole. First Past the Post is the main electoral system " used to elect in the local and general elections. FPTP is majoritarian system meaning that to win the election you are required to achieve more than 50% of the vote, this means that a large amount of votes are wasted. If we were to use a proportional system we could see equal fair amounts of voted parties in the UK. Parties with thinly spread support are often neglected with our current system and that is hardly democratic. An example of this was during the 2010 election whereby the Lib Dems got 23% of the vote but only 10% of the seats in parliament. This would suggest that the system is not truly representative of the peoples will.
             Many democratic deficits come as a result of regulations and laws coming from the European Union, coupled with the increasing influence of the European Court of Human Rights.


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