How Democratic is Britain? Essay

In this essay I have got out be calculateing at the democracy in Britain, scarcely firstly I would like to be sure that it is clear what democracy means. Democracy is when theres a system of government, whose repre displaceatives have been elected by the population. This means that the society is up to(p) to choose themselves, they have freedom of speech and views. The opposite of this is Dictatorship, this is when a dominion has total forcefulness over a country, a person who tells spate what to do in an autocratic expressive style or who determines behaviour in a particular argona. Politics is concerned with power differences at each levelling society its about negotiation and decision making at heart individuals at a personal level, groups at a personal level and groups at a commonwealthal level.This topic is a topic that many sociologist ar interested in, they want to find out how classless Britain is because e rattlingthing sociologists study ar linked to each otherwise and this topic is linked to equality in society. Sociologist want to know if our society is as equal as its said to be, but we totally know that in our society there isnt total equality.One of the important principles of democracy is that we argon equal to(p) to participate in the political process in order to turn over our views known. We do this by pick out, joining a political party and makeup to the press or our M.P.s. We have a Parliamentary democracy, this means that theres a system where fadeers atomic number 18 selected to even off the people through elections. These are the Members of Parliament (M.P.) who are elected.The British system has a number of fixed posts, these posts holders are the civil servants, the lords and the judges. These are the three primary(prenominal) institutions of the recount and the most powerful groups in society. The role of the relegate is to ferment as an umpire or referee rather than side with maven party over another.T he problem with this is that most of the people who work for the state are middle and upper class and all wait to dower the same views about the way society should be run. This means that not all views are being represented their views are elitism. collectible to this critics argue that Britain is not democratic because we have an unelected House of Lords and a Hereditary Monarchy. In this system there are three types of power and three types of allowance that Max Weber drew out, Economic power, physiologic power and Non-co-operative power, handed-down function, Charismatic authority and Legal authority. Economic power is when money has lead someone to power, it can reach to the point were theres exploitation. Physical power is taken over someone using physical big businessman over someone more vulnerable to them. Non-co-operative power is when someone refuses to come up what the person in power order therefore the one who refuses will become empowered themselves.Tradition al authority is when it is accepted because its of all time been done that certain way, its traditional within the culture. Charismatic authority is when a person has something special about them in their personality that the human race is drawn to. Legal authority is accepted because it is the law, you can be sent to prison for disobeying the law.There are three factors about the state that seem to support Marxs view, they are 1. most Mps are white. 2. most of them are from the middle class and 3. most of them are men.Due to this many groups are no longer voting because they feel their views are not represented or they feel that there is racism, sexism and bias within the political system.The pluralists argue that the states approach is towards everyone in society. Including the different ethnic groups, all ages, all genders and all other groups that exist in society. Political power is spread a spread among these groups. Unlike the conflict who argue that the states approach is t owards those who have had a privileged education and background. Thos who are in the senior possessions such as the judiciary. They believe that the policies benefit the bourgeoisie and ruling class.For this reason is why pressure groups have a very important role in maintaining democracy in Britain. Pluralists have a positive role of them. They help politicians keep in touch with the wishes of the public. They brook the government with the expert information.There are links between our voting behaviour and our social class, ethnicity, age and gender. People voter turnout for the party that the take up represents their views or interests, these views and interests are brought to us by the way we are socialised. We get these views and interests through the way we are socialised, we get captured through our families, our peer groups and the media influence our political views and attitudes on politics. I feel that the media is the main influence in our political socialisation in the media because it influences our lives in everything.The media often use wrench and Spin Doctors they use these in campaigns to persuade us to vote a particular way. Spin and Spin Doctors are use to either thingummy out the opponent by using images or interviews were they look as if they were going against what they said they would do in their manifesto, for example printing a certain phrase they said out of context so they look bad. If they are unable to do this they might make up things up about them and use it to get the public to vote for them. These techniques are a type of propaganda because they want you to believe something that is not exactly original but as long as they look like the good ones it doesnt matter.I have come to my conclusion of this essay, I believe that Britain is democratic because we get to vote in the Members of Parliament who are there to represent us. But there is a minority of people who have an undreamed of power within our government who make Britain and undemocratic country because its up to them to pass a law or any other decisions. This wouldnt be a problem if they thought the way the nation do but their backgrounds have a great influences in the way they think and their thoughts are very different to ours. I dont agree with the present parliamentary system because those who are involved in the system are elite, I think that if they wanted a true democratic Britain they would bring in a new system to vote in who we want to be at the top deciding what the remunerate thing would be for our society, including the royal monarchy.