The UK - A representative democracy

-by Victor
Armegioiu
Is the UK a democratic society ?

Undoubtedly , any political scientist would describe the UK through the word
democracy. Taking into consideration a wide range of international
standards , processed by several research political institutes , the UK is fully
regarded as a democracy.
Upon a more detailed analysis , Britain is widely known as one of the few
societies that have maintained a democratic stance since 1880s.
Moreover , the UK has managed to score a maximum 10 points on the Polity
scale of democracy annually since 1945.
Nevertheless , the political system has suffered several changes that have
made their marks . Reforms initiated by Tony Blairs fist Labour Government
from 1997 to 2001 were probably the broadest . But, how can we determine
if those changes increased the democratic status in the UK?


Is UK democracy improving or getting worse ?

Through constant evaluation , it has been determined that there is a total of
74 areas of democratic improvement, 92 continuing concerns and 62 new
and emerging concerns.
Although , making such a decision would require taking into account several
factors , such as : many reforms have proved double-edged , the
positive/negative changes do not carry equal weight , many of the concerns
identified are serious and long-standing ones. etc .
Therefore , any assessment regarding the UK democracy would be purely
subjective , as it could improve or deteriorate Britains democratic image.

Where do the main problems come from ?
Firstly , certain constitutional aspects tend to appear increasingly unstable
,as some reforms came with a few unexpected consequences , while other
were proven to be quite ineffective .
Secondly , the public faith in democratic institutions has been constantly
decaying over the last years .
Thirdly, political inequality is widening rapidly. While representative
democracy is notionally built on principles of political equality (such as one
person, one vote), there have always been wide variations in the extent of
political participation, and degree of political power exercised, by different
social groups.

Overview
I am firmly convinced that the UK still has to implement quite a few changes
into the constitutional arrangements , in order to become a perfect
democracy.
Nevertheless , in my opinion , Britain has achieved more than enough ,
therefore , it may truly be the society with the best democratic system (so
far) .


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Sources : Wikipedia.org
BBC.com
Political Nights Magazine
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