Democracy is a very general term used to describe various political systems that are organised on the basis that the government should serve the interests of the people. It is expected in a democracy that citizens should influence decisions, make decisions themselves and that the government is accountable to the people. It is also expected that the freedoms of citizen’s are protected, minorities are protected, governmental power is controlled and dispersed more widely. This indeed is the model of democracy many countries try to emulate today. If we are to consider the UK’s own version of democracy, it is important to see how exactly it has developed. We should start on the 15th of June 1215; King John is forced to sign the Magna Carta, a document establishing that the King would not rule with absolute power. Then on the 1st of January 1295 Edward I becomes the first Monarch to call Parliament where two representatives, along with nobles and clergy, from each area are called to air grievances against the crown. The foundations of Britain’s Parliamentary democracy have been laid. What follows are several significant events: the Peasants revolt of 1381, Acts of Union in 1536 and later in 1709 joining Scotland, Wales and England into a United Kingdom, the English Civil War of 1651 where the Parliamentarians defeat the royalists and Oliver Cromwell forever establishes that the monarch cannot rule without Parliament’s consent and finally the Representation of the People Act of 1969, making all British Citizens at the age of 18 and above eligible to vote. These are the main events that have each contributed to the development of British democracy from the old Feudal system to the modern representative, parliamentary democracy that the UK is governed by today. If we are to look at Britain’s political system now, it can be argued that the UK is democratic in the aspects of representation and accountability, however undemocratic in the aspect…
