Features of representative democracy
- Created by: rosiekennedy
- Created on: 21-11-18 10:49
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- Features of representative democracy
- Accountability
- Elected representatives must be made responsible for their policies, actions, decisions and general conduct
- Otherwise representation becomes largely meaningless
- Elected representatives must be made responsible for their policies, actions, decisions and general conduct
- Social representation
- Idea that the representative body should broadly represent the characteristics of the population as a whole
- MPs should be in line with the makeup of the country (ie. race, sex, sexual orientation, disability)
- Idea that the representative body should broadly represent the characteristics of the population as a whole
- National interest
- A country's goals and ambitions ie. economic, cultural, military etc.
- Often referred to as "raison d'état"
- May clash with the constituency an MP represents
- A country's goals and ambitions ie. economic, cultural, military etc.
- Constituency representation
- Representing the interests of individual constituents
- Representing the interests of the whole constituency
- A representative listens to their constituents' views when deciding about a national issue
- Can clash is personal conscience
- Party representation
- All modern democracies have the characteristic of political parties
- The majority of those who take part in elections are members of political parties instead of being individual candidates
- People are more likely to understand what a party stands for
- Therefore vote for the members to represent them on that basis
- All modern democracies have the characteristic of political parties
- Accountability
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