How Effective Is Parliament in Carrying Out Its Representative Role?

Government in the UK is a representative body elected for and by the people. The UK uses the parliamentary system as its model of representation; this means the different areas of government which are the legislative, judiciary and executive branches work in and through each other as opposed to the Presidential model which separates the powers. Westminster Parliament is the acting microcosm for the UK society; it is a small group of 365 MPs who are chosen to represent their constituencies. Each MP is given power through trusteeship when voted in, this meaning that they will try to carry out what is best for their constituency. They are also once voted in known as a mandate, the authority granted by a constituency to an MP to act as its representative. In government the key stage of direct government representation comes from MP’s, these are the elected representatives from each of the constituencies who are voted into government in separate elections. The electoral system we have in the UK is debated whether it is a form of Parliament that is representative of its constituents. The first past the post system used in the UK is a system where the amount of votes gained within a constituency for a candidate has to have the most votes but not necessarily a majority. This then means the same for the amount of MPs who form parties, the amount of MPs voted in.Generally the party with a majority of constituencies can form a government but in the 2010 election a coalition has to be formed in the absence of a majority. Although this can be unfair to smaller parties this often creates strong government. Alternative vote (AV) is another electoral system by which voters place the candidates in their constituency in order of preference. After the count of first preference votes the candidate with least drops out and the second preference votes of those who voted for said candidate are redistributed. This process continues moving down preferences until a candidate has a