From: pac9897@zeus.tamu.edu (THEY SENTENCED ME TO 5 MORE YEARS)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy
Date: 13 Apr 92 00:11:00 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

After a little bit of backbiting from a few people because I insinuated that
democracy has failed in Britain, I thought I had better spell out the case
for such an insinuation.

Reasons why democracy no longer works properly in Great Britain:
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Since 1979, but 1983 in particular (following the foundation of the 
   SDP/Alliance somewhat earlier in the decade), Britain has ceased to
   be a 2 party system and is now what could be refered to as a 2 and a
   1/2 party system.
   The upshot of this is, because of our winnner-takes-all first-past-the
   post single-member constituency system, the Conservative Party
   has had absolute power at Westminster on around 42% of the vote for
   the last 13 years.
   There clearly needs to be reform of a system where the Liberal Democrats
   can get 20% of the vote and only around 20 seats out of 651 in the Commons.

2. Since Mrs. Thatchers' election in 1979, our country has become more and
   more regionally fractionalised. With the exception of 1983, when Labour
   got stuffed by the Tories everywhere, the Conservatives have ruled basically
   on a mandate of the voters in the South East, South Coast and South West of
   England.
   At no time have the people of Wales, Northern England or Scotland voted in
   a majority for the Conservative government that has ruled the central 
   government. When such a large and diverse area of the country can be 
   tyrannised by the larger population in the South East for 13 years, calls
   for the breakup of the country will and have occured. This has been 
   accentuated by the fact that, until the latest recession, Conservative
   policies seemed to have the hardest effect in areas that did not support
   them and benefitted most the areas that were predominantly Conservative.
   Unless something is done to rectify this situation the calls for a breakup
   of the central state will grow too loud to be ignored.

3. Because of the voting system, which deters people from voting for a
   third party because they have "no chance of winning" people are forced
   into a "rock and a hard place" choice.
   In opinion polls asked on the issues people frequently answer that
   they favor more the policies of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, but
   the do not trust Labour with the economy.
   In other words we are constantly being offered the artificial choice
   between massive unemployment and ruined public services or the possibility
   of vaulting inflation and massive industrial disruption.
   If we had a voting system, such as PR or even multi-member constituencies
   then that took account of people's dislikes by offering them a second vote
   should their candidate fail to get a reasonable showing in a first count
   then maybe we could get a coalitional government or one party in power
   that the _majority_ supported.


It is clear that the present system favors the status quo and crushes parties
like the Liberal Democrats who have sensible, popular ideas from even
getting a)the fair share of seats they should get off the 20% of the vote
they garner now or b)a degree of credibility that would allow the much
larger group who "would vote for them if they though they had a chance of
winning" to go ahead and vote for who they want, not who will keep the
Tories/Labour out in their area.


What Great Britain (and notice they have PR in Northern Ireland because
the Westminster parties are fully aware that PR tends toward fairer 
representation) has now is not real democracy, it is an elected dictatorship
that relies on 42% of voters - the majority of who live in the home counties
to force their policies on everyone else.



Philip A. Carney		On Exchange from Lancaster University,
Texas A&M University, TX	England.

**********ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN, NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF**************
******TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY OR THEIR ASSOCIATES**********

"The lust for power is rooted not in strength, but in weakness..." - Erich Fromm

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british