How Democratic Is the Uk?

How Democratic is the UK?

Democracy is the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves. Britain is a representative democracy and I believe the UK political system is democratic to an extent. This is because of the corners over the first-past-the-post electoral system. On the one hand it is a free and fair electoral system because it allows every to vote which means every views are heard, but in the other hand it is criticized because of participation crisis (low voter turnout in general elections). Also there have been concerns about the effectiveness of parliament; on the one hand it makes it faster and easier to pass legislation, because the executive branch is dependent upon the direct or indirect support of the legislative branch and often includes members of the legislature. Thus, this would amount to the executive (as the majority party or coalition of parties in the legislature) possessing more votes in order to pass legislation. But on the other hand it is undemocratic to have unelected Members of the Lords involved in drafting and passing legislation, the UK is the only country in the world – with the exception of Canada, that has an unelected second chamber. There has also been a divide over how effective referendums are especially after the Brexit, on the one hand it is very democratic because it is a form of direct democracy because every UK citizen was able to be involved in this political decision, but on the other it can cause huge divides around the country for example the UK after Brexit when the leave vote won, which led hate crimes all around the UK.