Democracy and Participation Examples:
Political Participation
- Participation in 2019 = just over 65% - evidence of participation crisis
- Problems with FPTP - 43.6% of vote translates to majority
- Decline in party memberships (Conservatives= 3% to 0.5%)
- Turnout figures of 18-24 year old is around 35%
- Youthquake under Corbyn after he campaigned at Glastonbury – increasing
young voter turnout to 54%
- In Italy, voting was compulsory until 1998 when turnout was typically close to
90%, but since voting has been no longer compulsory turnout has fallen, hitting
72.93% in 2018
- Turnout in 2024 election was 59%
- Representation of the People Act 1928 = extended the franchise to all adults over
21, including women
- Representation of the People Act 1969 = lowered voting age from 21 to 18.
However, this is not universal suffrage as prisoners (although Scotland now
allows some prisoners to vote in Scottish elections), those sectioned under the
Mental Health Act and the homeless cannot vote
- Votes at 16 has 4290 registered supporters as of June 2020 to campaign for the
franchise to be extended to 16-17 year olds = they have had some success as the
voting age in Scotland and Wales was lowered to 16 and their aim was added to
Labour and Lib Dem manifestos
- Marcus Rashford’s work with FareShare has pushed Boris Johnson to provide
£396 million in support of continuing free school meals during Easter, Christmas
and summer holidays for over 1.7 million children in need.
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Trade unions had little influence - ASH pushed for the ban on
under Thatcher as she intended on smoking in enclosed public places
privatising large industries such as - BMA lobbied the government to
British Gas - shows how pressure spend 3.4% more money on the
group impact can fluctuate NHS per annum
depending on party in charge - NFU (close links with the
- Plane Stupid adopted methods of Department of Environment, Food
civil disobedience = invading and Rural Affairs = 2013, helped
airports and blocking flights. The convince the coalition government
government responded that they to support badger removal to
should ‘expect jail’ prevent the spread of tuberculosis
- Just Stop Oil = polarised public in farm animals despite resistance
support. for example, a YouGov from outsider pressure groups e.g.
survey in 2022 concluded that 64% Badge Trust
of people opposed the group due to - Outsider pressure group success =
, their tactics alone. 2020 campaign led by Marcus
- RMT rail strikes in 2022 did not Rashford to extent free school
increase wages meals during the holidays through
social media and e-petitions.
- 2016, when the 38 Degrees group
collected 321,437 signatures in an e-
petition, it persuaded the
government not to privatise the
land registry
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Scepticism surrounding think tanks - 2015 = NFU successfully lobbied so
motivations = IEA is critical of that plant nurseries would be
government measures to reduce of exempt from business rates and in
restrict harmful activities such as 2023, they successfully lobbied to
smoking bans, sugar taxes and ensure rural households receive
restrictions on fast food additional energy help when they
advertising. One of its main donors were ‘off-grid’
is the British American Tobacco - Neutral think tanks remain
influential irrespective of
government in power e.g. Chatham
House
- Annual spending on lobbying in the
UK is £2 billion
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Possible corruption = former - In 2007, there were 14,000 people
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw employed to lobby
claimed that in 2015, he used his - Revolving Door effect allows for
contacts in the EU to change sugar increased expertise and intimate
regulations on behalf of ED and F relationships e.g. David Cameron
Man Holdings which paid him lobbied on behalf of Greensill
£60,000 per year. Capital to influence COVID
- Lack of transparency = policies
Transparency of Lobbying Act 2015
only applies to consultant lobbyists
- Peter Cruddas offered David
Cameron £250,000 per year for
political advantages - CASH FOR
CAMERON SCANDAL 2012
, Protection of Human Rights:
YES:
- Race Relations Act 1965 - outlawed discrimination of most kinds on the grounds
of someone's race or ethnicity.
- Human Rights Act 1998 - enforces a wide range of rights across the UK, binding
all public bodies except Parliament.
- Liberty (pressure group) - Human Rights Act Campaign (2015): Launched a
campaign to prevent the Conservative government from repealing the Human
Rights Act, which remains in place as of 2023.
- Amnesty International (pressure group) - "Write for Rights" Campaign =
Yecenia Armenta (Mexico, 2016): Released after torture-induced confession and
Myanmar Prisoners (2020): Amnesty played a role in the release of 8,000
prisoners of conscience.
- Campbell vs Mirror Group News 2004 – Mirror published photos of supermodel
Naomi Campbell leaving a clinic that dealt with narcotic addictions – she claimed
it breached her privacy and therefore her human rights - Campbell's right to
privacy VS the Mirror's freedom of expression
- The number of judicial reviews rose from around 4,240 in 2000 to around 15,600
in 2013, with judges often protecting the right to privacy over the right to
freedom of expression
- Tesco’s Fire and Hire Case 2024 = Supreme Court ruled that firing and hiring
tactics breached human rights due to the dismissal of employees on less
favourable terms
- GDPR fined Google £43 million in 2019 for not obtaining consent to use data of
people to personalise data
NO:
- ECHR has been breached = the detention of foreign prisoners in Belmarsh
without trial under section 23 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Max Mosley, the head of the Formula 1 motor racing organisation, substantial
damages when the News of the World published a story about his sex life, which
he argued had breached his privacy. The ECHR however refused to rule that
newspapers should notify people before printing stories about their personal lives
- Right to privacy (Mosley) VS freedom of expression
- HRA is not legally binding and the Conservative 2017 and 2019 government
pledged to replace it e.g. Cameron in 2011 stated he will replace it with a British
Bill of Rights - ‘we will scrap one and for all’
Political Participation
- Participation in 2019 = just over 65% - evidence of participation crisis
- Problems with FPTP - 43.6% of vote translates to majority
- Decline in party memberships (Conservatives= 3% to 0.5%)
- Turnout figures of 18-24 year old is around 35%
- Youthquake under Corbyn after he campaigned at Glastonbury – increasing
young voter turnout to 54%
- In Italy, voting was compulsory until 1998 when turnout was typically close to
90%, but since voting has been no longer compulsory turnout has fallen, hitting
72.93% in 2018
- Turnout in 2024 election was 59%
- Representation of the People Act 1928 = extended the franchise to all adults over
21, including women
- Representation of the People Act 1969 = lowered voting age from 21 to 18.
However, this is not universal suffrage as prisoners (although Scotland now
allows some prisoners to vote in Scottish elections), those sectioned under the
Mental Health Act and the homeless cannot vote
- Votes at 16 has 4290 registered supporters as of June 2020 to campaign for the
franchise to be extended to 16-17 year olds = they have had some success as the
voting age in Scotland and Wales was lowered to 16 and their aim was added to
Labour and Lib Dem manifestos
- Marcus Rashford’s work with FareShare has pushed Boris Johnson to provide
£396 million in support of continuing free school meals during Easter, Christmas
and summer holidays for over 1.7 million children in need.
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Trade unions had little influence - ASH pushed for the ban on
under Thatcher as she intended on smoking in enclosed public places
privatising large industries such as - BMA lobbied the government to
British Gas - shows how pressure spend 3.4% more money on the
group impact can fluctuate NHS per annum
depending on party in charge - NFU (close links with the
- Plane Stupid adopted methods of Department of Environment, Food
civil disobedience = invading and Rural Affairs = 2013, helped
airports and blocking flights. The convince the coalition government
government responded that they to support badger removal to
should ‘expect jail’ prevent the spread of tuberculosis
- Just Stop Oil = polarised public in farm animals despite resistance
support. for example, a YouGov from outsider pressure groups e.g.
survey in 2022 concluded that 64% Badge Trust
of people opposed the group due to - Outsider pressure group success =
, their tactics alone. 2020 campaign led by Marcus
- RMT rail strikes in 2022 did not Rashford to extent free school
increase wages meals during the holidays through
social media and e-petitions.
- 2016, when the 38 Degrees group
collected 321,437 signatures in an e-
petition, it persuaded the
government not to privatise the
land registry
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Scepticism surrounding think tanks - 2015 = NFU successfully lobbied so
motivations = IEA is critical of that plant nurseries would be
government measures to reduce of exempt from business rates and in
restrict harmful activities such as 2023, they successfully lobbied to
smoking bans, sugar taxes and ensure rural households receive
restrictions on fast food additional energy help when they
advertising. One of its main donors were ‘off-grid’
is the British American Tobacco - Neutral think tanks remain
influential irrespective of
government in power e.g. Chatham
House
- Annual spending on lobbying in the
UK is £2 billion
LIMITED SUCCESS: LOTS OF SUCCESS:
- Possible corruption = former - In 2007, there were 14,000 people
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw employed to lobby
claimed that in 2015, he used his - Revolving Door effect allows for
contacts in the EU to change sugar increased expertise and intimate
regulations on behalf of ED and F relationships e.g. David Cameron
Man Holdings which paid him lobbied on behalf of Greensill
£60,000 per year. Capital to influence COVID
- Lack of transparency = policies
Transparency of Lobbying Act 2015
only applies to consultant lobbyists
- Peter Cruddas offered David
Cameron £250,000 per year for
political advantages - CASH FOR
CAMERON SCANDAL 2012
, Protection of Human Rights:
YES:
- Race Relations Act 1965 - outlawed discrimination of most kinds on the grounds
of someone's race or ethnicity.
- Human Rights Act 1998 - enforces a wide range of rights across the UK, binding
all public bodies except Parliament.
- Liberty (pressure group) - Human Rights Act Campaign (2015): Launched a
campaign to prevent the Conservative government from repealing the Human
Rights Act, which remains in place as of 2023.
- Amnesty International (pressure group) - "Write for Rights" Campaign =
Yecenia Armenta (Mexico, 2016): Released after torture-induced confession and
Myanmar Prisoners (2020): Amnesty played a role in the release of 8,000
prisoners of conscience.
- Campbell vs Mirror Group News 2004 – Mirror published photos of supermodel
Naomi Campbell leaving a clinic that dealt with narcotic addictions – she claimed
it breached her privacy and therefore her human rights - Campbell's right to
privacy VS the Mirror's freedom of expression
- The number of judicial reviews rose from around 4,240 in 2000 to around 15,600
in 2013, with judges often protecting the right to privacy over the right to
freedom of expression
- Tesco’s Fire and Hire Case 2024 = Supreme Court ruled that firing and hiring
tactics breached human rights due to the dismissal of employees on less
favourable terms
- GDPR fined Google £43 million in 2019 for not obtaining consent to use data of
people to personalise data
NO:
- ECHR has been breached = the detention of foreign prisoners in Belmarsh
without trial under section 23 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Max Mosley, the head of the Formula 1 motor racing organisation, substantial
damages when the News of the World published a story about his sex life, which
he argued had breached his privacy. The ECHR however refused to rule that
newspapers should notify people before printing stories about their personal lives
- Right to privacy (Mosley) VS freedom of expression
- HRA is not legally binding and the Conservative 2017 and 2019 government
pledged to replace it e.g. Cameron in 2011 stated he will replace it with a British
Bill of Rights - ‘we will scrap one and for all’
