Taking the Party out of Politics

Episode 4 explores the problems with the way we select our democratic representatives, both at a local level (selecting our local representative) and at a national level (selecting the group of representatives who will form our government.

• The challenges of adequately representing the interests of not only majorities, but also the interests of minorities, too.
• What it means to get a majority of the vote – to get elected. In many instances, more people voted against our local representatives than voted for them.
• Can a political party, which goes on to form a government, ever actually get a majority of the votes cast? (Spoiler alert – not recently!)
• What about all those people who don't vote? 

Political parties form majority governments, without winning a majority of the votes cast nationally.

But do we then really have a government which represents us?

What does all of this that say about electoral mandates? – the legitimacy to make changes? – perhaps even big changes?

And if the government doesn't represent us, then is it really a representative democracy?

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In this episode, we have a look at some different possible political systems, and use that to explore what we mean by the word ‘Democracy’, along with other ideas, such as consideration for others and respect for minorities.  Then we move from there to understand the particular form of democracy which we use. 

Because, though we might blithely use the blanket term ‘Democracy’, we actually have a fairly specialised form of ‘Democracy’.

The system we have is actually more accurately referred to as: ‘Representative Democracy’.

But, what does that word ‘Representative’ actually mean, in this context?

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An overview of why human beings come together, and why a certain amount of organisation and regulation of our lives (government) is good for getting things sorted out. We are able to live better if we cooperate and obey the laws (we give up a certain amount of freedom to do as we like), rather than to simply take what we want, and to constantly live trying to protect what little we have from someone bigger and stronger.

However, have the rules by which we live been set up entirely fairly? We call the deal, between those of us who agree to be governed and those who do the governing, a 'Social Contract'. Laws in return for safety. Taxes in return for public services. But was our Social Contract entirely fairly - or has it always been to the advantage of the strongest and the the richest?

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An introduction to the first series of Taking the Party out of Politics, providing an overview of three big problems with the ways in which our political systems are not working as well as they could do:  

1. The Voters.  
2. The Wicked Issues.  
3. Scrutiny.  

For each of these big problems, there are possible solutions, which we will explore together over the three series of this podcast, by doing three different things:

1.    We’re going to start by looking at how things are supposed to work. 

2.    Then we’re going to move on to looking at some of the big reasons why things aren’t working as well as they could do. 

3.    Finally, we’ll finish up by looking at three small things which we could be doing, to make things work better.

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