Saturday, August 11, 2012

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corporate power, politicians and voters apathetic representative leave the UK more and more unstable, "says study

A study on the state of democracy in the UK over the last decade should be noted that "long-term terminally ill," as corporate power continues to grow, politicians less and less representative of the disaffected voters and citizens do not vote or even to discuss current issues.

The audit report democratic actions exclusively with The Guardian, there have been many positive developments over the last 10 years: strong special committees of MPs holding ministers and officials to account, the devolution of power in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and publication of information on the cost much more donors and political parties.

But he found evidence of many other areas where the United Kingdom seem to have moved away from its two benchmarks of representative democracy: How people have control policy decisions, and how it reflects fairly the system of the people it represents -. First, more highly integrated in the concept of a person, one vote

Among their concerns, identified from databases of official statistics and public surveys were that the constitutional provisions in the UK are "increasingly unstable" because of changes such as decentralization, public confidence in democratic institutions "in decline", a widening gap in participation rates for different categories of voters, and "unprecedented" growth in corporate power, the authors of The study warned that "threatens to undermine some of the most basic principles of democratic decision making"

In an interview with The Guardian, Stuart Wilks-Heeg, author of the report, warned that Britain could soon have to ask "if it is truly representative democracy now?"

"The reality is that representative democracy, in the center, must be people to vote, should be on those involved in political parties, should be on people who have contact with representatives elected, and have faith and trust in elected officials and representatives of those shows that you can effectively exercise political power and make decisions that tend to be approved, "said Wilks-Heeg.

"It's pretty catastrophic decline. How low participation must be before asking if it is truly representative democracy at all. "

democratic institutions in the UK are strong enough to keep up with public participation low, but people continue to vote and was disappointed, the problem would get worse, said Wilks-Heeg .

"Over time, the separation distorts the political process even more to those already most favored by virtue of their connections wealth, education or training. And the political participation of the masses, the sense disconnection between citizens and their representatives will inevitably grow. "

Sadiq Khan, Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary and former president of human rights, freedom, said: "What I find really disturbing is that there is no shortage of big questions that we become familiar with - the economy, the future of our health care, education and social, of our environment -. many of which attract the attention of public opinion, but there is a lag when it comes to political parties "

For its fourth report in a series dating back to 1996, Democratic Audit examined dozens of data sets from the United Kingdom and other countries with democratic governments, legislation, polls public opinion research and other researchers.

The report, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, which is 74 "Improvement Areas", the increasing use of the Human Rights of 1998, the law of the members of low growth parties like the Scottish National Party and the Greens, which won its first MP, Caroline Lucas, in 2010.

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