Democracy in Scotland

the scottish parliament. 

• the scottish parliament can make only on things based in scotland, these are called devolved powers. eg, the parliament can make laws on health, transport and education. 
• MSP's are memebers of the scottish parliament and sit on a particular party. The party with the most MSP's usually gets the majority vote so parties team up together to gain a majority. For example, the greens and SNP's tean up for votes.       MSP's are there to represent their constituency . They can do this either in their cpnstituency or at parliament. In contituencies, msp's can meet locals, asnwer questions, gather evidence for a proposed bill. In parliament, msp's can vote, propose a bill, pass on complaints and any concerns that the contstituents proposed. Msp's can propose a member's bill, this is a bill that is proposed by any individual msp in parlimanet, although, to do this they have to have cross party support. 
• AMS or additional memebrs system is how we elect our msp's to parliament. It is a proportional voting system that involves two votes ... one for the constituency msp and one for thre regional list msp. The aim of AMS is to make it that one constituency is fairy represented by some if not all parties. The advantages of this systen is that it is fair, propotional and gives the constituents more msp's tp talk to and ask questions to. The disadvantage of this systen is that is could be confusing to some constituents as they dont fully understand the process. 
• Nicola Sturgeon is the first minister in parliament, she is party leader for the SNP's and has the power to make descisions on issues in scotland that she believes will benefit scotland in the long term. In the long term, she will want indepenece but right now she is working on imporving scotland's education. She has the power to pass laws as, with support from the green party, she has majority in parliament. However, she is questioned every thursday morning at FMQT ( first minister's questions time ) on the descisions she makes, any MSP can ask her a questions and she has to answer every question. If not in FMQT, then with a letter sent to that MSP within a week. The FM also has the power to choose cabinet leaders, for example, Nicola Sturgeon chose John Swinney to be cabinet leader for education. 
• The scottish government at the moment is the SNP party because they have the majority vote. The government makes laws according to things that benefit scotland and only on devolved powers. For example the government made education in scotland free and also made healthcare free by introducing the NHS
• Committees are small groups of MSP's that meet up to descuss a descision, bill or even law in parliament. They can critise a law or bill or improve it and even talk about proposing a new one. They can also invite guests to listen and contribute to their…