Participation is the essence of democracy Discuss Essay

DiscussFor many a(prenominal) long time and plain centuries whizz of the main(prenominal) discussions that develop been very dominant is the right to voting. The right to suffrage is a phrase that has been in headlines for many centuries to give countries more of a republic. The get together States, Women across the world and many minorities had to participation and millions died in the process to fight for their right to vote. However, is voting the outcome of democracy or is voting an overrated trade union movement? Is participation of the concourse needed to make a democracy? democracy means the right to vote, it doesnt mean that you have to vote, if no whizz votes and then its a democracy because it shows that no whiz atomic number 18 interest on how the earth is ran so the previous organization that was voted by the plurality, ordain carry on making the decision.In the join Kingdom, if you argon over the age of 18 and you do non have a criminal record, you be allowed to vote. If you be ill and you extremity psyche else to vote on your behalf, that vote will be rejected.The end point democracy does non have a specific definition but there atomic number 18 elements that create a democracy. A simple way to phrase democracy is a rule of the pile or power to the community. Government of the people, by the people, for the people this is a famous quote that former President of the United States Abraham Lincoln defined democracy. There atomic number 18 four main types of democracies Direct, Liberal, deputy and Pluralist.Direct Democracy is when policies be directly decided on by the vote of the people. The term direct democracy originated in Athens of the 40,000 bighearted slaves in the 5th Century. The women and current slaves were excluded. Switzerland has adopted Participatory democracy which is a type of direct democracy. The citizens have more participation in referendums and are able to be more involved in politics. Howev er, there are certain referendums and policies that are quite complex and many people will just vote without research or consideration on how it capacity affect them. Also, it is non a fight downative of the whole rural area if save a few people vote just because they understand the polity and the other high percentage dont. This will discourage people to go and put in their vote.Representative Democracy- for this type of democracy to ingest place, people who are eligible to vote will vote for some whiz who is running to become a member of parliament (E.g. Member of Parliament) to represent their views in government. The United Kingdom is an example of a representative democracy because we have to vote on who we want to represent us in Parliament.Liberal Democracy incorporates innocent(p), fair and competitive options with the importance of specific headstone rights and key responsibilities. In liberal democracies they extend the right to vote amongst citizens. This too m eans that the freedom of free speech is granted. some Liberal democracies are incorporated with other democracies such as the UK is seen to be as a liberal democracy and a representative democracy. Pluralist Democracy promotes participation that allows free and fair competition in interest. In pluralist democracies there will be a very high range of competing interest such as economy and environment.Political participation is a process where citizens of a country get involved in political activities. Milbrath and Goel(1977) discove inflammation that there are three types of political participants the gladiators who are the small percentage of keen participants, the spectators who vote and whitethorn be interested in specific issues but may limit their participation and the ampathetic are those who do not particularly make do and do not enroll at all. They also claimed that most people voted sporadically. There are many types of participations such as becoming a member of a politi cal party, protests, petitions, boycotting, being an MP, debates and joining a blackmail groups.Edmund burke a famous Irish political philosopher argued that participation is the key. He used a metaphor saying give tongue to The only social occasion necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. the government represent evils and the good men represent the citizens who are allowed to vote. To interpret what Burke was saying, is that if citizens leave their trust into the governments hand, then evil will prevail. What he is severe to promote is a fairer world but with the input of the people. Burkes main influences in life were religion as both of his parents were brawny believers. Burke treasured to widen out the political participation as he valued to defend the independence of the House of Commons as he opposed the King George III attempts to regain some of the prerogatives that the monarchy had at sea in the Glorious Revolution of 1689.(UK Political, Gen eral Election Turnout 1945-2010)As you push aside see from this graph, the turnout has dropped down significantly. The main reason is disenchantment. Many voters lose faith and trust in those who are in government. As you can analyse in 1950 it was the highest turnout. The Second World War unblemished 5 years before and the people wanted to be in a society where they were confortable and safe. Though there has been a few upwardly growth for example in 1979 when the first female was running to be Prime Minister and Margarat Thatcher won the peoples vote. The biggest dip was between 1997 and 2007. The Electoral elector Commission stated that the reason why the turnout was a constituent of 18-24 year olds did not vote.However, when Tony Blair was in power, he was seen as one of the trump Prime Minister in history. Though people questioned the credibility of this election overdue to the amount votes and it was said that it didnt represent the whole cosmos, it was dormant a demo cracy because a democracy is the right to vote. You do not need to vote because it is your choice.We can see that from 2001 to 2010 there has been an upward purport in the amount of votes. The main reason for this is because of the Iraq war and a bounteous amount of the population had an opinion on it. Also in 2010 it was the midsection of the world recession, people were getting into financial troubles and wanted a revision of government to help them through the recession, and this is why the Conservatives got in. The Conservatives were telling the public what they wanted to hear and by the participants of them, they were able to be in office. Participation was unimpeachably principal(prenominal) for democracy to take place.In Zimbabwe, the right to vote is important but the right to vote is not an option. In Zimbabwe, many people are killed and many fight for survival. Mugabe has been in power for 32 years as President and Prime Minister. For many years, Zimbabweans are r isking their lives to get a better life in South Africa because many people died due to the ruling of Mugabe. Democracy is definitely not practised in the country and the citizens do not vote for what they believe in and participation is not a virtue. Psephology has said voters vote to achieve their goals, however, it is not a choice in Zimbabwe.Britain is a great example of a democracy. If Britain was not a democracy then it may become a dictatorship and top out by the monarchy. Protests, freedom of speech and petitions are the essence of democracy. If no one voted, if only one voted or if no one had an interest then it would still be against the law to be a homophobic, if no one gave an interest then the government wouldnt fight to bring soldiers stern home because it what the people what.403030 Society. This is a term that Hutton described our society.it means that 40% are in secure work, 30% are in insecure work and 30% are in economic crisis and socially marginalised, jobless or working on pauperisation wages. If 60% are economically insecure and they are not getting better, there is no point to vote because getting out of the red and into the black is the highest priority on the peoples mind. If there is no change then, it can be seen as a wait vote.Party participation is the downright importance for a democracy to be in affect because many people have voted for changes that if they didnt do, could have affected their life and even their familys life in a bad way. There are many theories that has been studied over the past 60 years to insinuate why people vote party identification (the process of pickax the party due to socialisation), sociologist theory (Pulzers report in 1967 shows that one votes due to social company and peoples characteristics.The middle class votes Conservatives and working class votes Labour), another is the rational choice theory (Himmelweit at al 1981 said that citizens vote due to the performance of the previous administr ation and how itll effect their or their families goals, the last and final theory is the Dominant Ideology Theory (Dunleavy and Husbands 1985 argues that people vote due to the mass media and the misrepresentation). These theories suggest that we as the people have created competition, security and democracy.The UK leads by example because if people do not participate as citizens of a country, the citizens would be more of a dictatorship. John Prescott wanted devolution for the South East however they voted against it by a milestone. This is the essence for democracy. In my opinion I believe that if someone doesnt want to vote or participate because of the lack of trust or because of financial issues then they shouldnt, why should someone vote for a party or become a member of a party if they are not fulfilling their promises? However, I do believe that if a high proportion of the population do not vote then democracy will not take place because it is not a representative of the wh ole country.